The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Barramundis have proven that they are still the team to beat after bulldozing over the Philippines in day two the East Asia Pacific T20 Men’s World Cup Qualifying Finals in front of a packed home crowd at Amini Park in Port Moresby, bowling out the Philippines for 45 runs.
This was off the back of some resilient batting by the home side, as they were challenged earlier on in the first innings.
The Barras won the toss and elected to bat and despite losing two wickets in the first 4 overs, the Barras managed to maintain a good run rate, thanks to the efforts of middle order Batsmen, Lega Siaka and Opener Tony Ura.
Kiplin Dorriga was first to be dismissed for 10 runs after being cleanly bowled by the Philippines Captain Daniel Smith in the 4th over.
This saw Captain Assadollah Vala take the pitch. Unfortunately, Vala was the second wicket to fall following a line ball by Kepler Lukies catching the Barras captain’s foot in front of the wicket.
This put the home team under immense pressure by the Carabaos bowlers and their great field positioning, making the Barras to work every ball to score runs.
Midway through the 7th over, Charles Amini Jnr became the 3 wickets of the innings, after showing much promise with the bat following the dismissal of Vala.
Siaka and Ura both showed class and resolve to weather the bowling attack and set up a good run margin before Ura in an attempt to sweep the ball into the offside was caught by Jean-Miguel Podosky.
Hiri Hiri and Siaka came close to hitting half centuries, both contributing a combined score of 94 runs before getting out, PNG ending the innings with 7/162.
The Philippines did not expect the early onslaught from the PNG bowlers. Kapil Kumar faced only 4 balls before getting bowled by Vagi-Morea in the first over.
Vagi-Morea claimed 3 more wickets consecutively in the 3rd over and a fifth in the 5th over, with the Carabaos managing only 3 runs at the end of the over.
With the visitors struggling to hit runs, the Barras returned the favor in fielding, minimizing the Carabaos run rate and managing to get the visitors all out for 45 runs.
The Baramundis won by 117 runs with Kabua Vagi Morea named player of the match with a 5-wickethaul.
Coach of the Philippines, Henry Tyler commented post-match that despite the loss to the home side he was happy with his side’s performance with the ball in field, stating that he was proud of how they managed to keep the Barras to a minimum of 160 runs.
“I was speaking to Dan before, and I think this is one of the best performances we’ve had. To keep this world class side to 160, I was immensely proud of how our bowlers performed with the ball and all the bowlers played their role very clinically.
Obviously with the bat, things didn’t go well, and we didn’t really adjust to the swing and the conditions out there,” Tyler said.
Tyler said that with the rest day on Monday, they would be taking it easy, and they’ll be concentrating on the match against Vanuatu on Tuesday.
He said they were truly grateful to be here in the country playing cricket and was amazed with the atmosphere and support from the local crowd.