The Philippine Carabaos Captain, Daniel Smith has hailed his team’s efforts in their brave performance going down to the Kumul Petroleum PNG Barramundis in match day six of the ICC East Asia Pacific Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers.
Smith mentioned that it was obvious that the first half of the match did not go their way but was extremely proud of his team’s performance, especially in the second innings when they lost a few early wickets before establishing a partnership
“The first half of the game didn’t really go our way, but you show a bit of ticker, and the first half of the game was sort of gone from our memory.”
“I’m very proud of how the boys went out there and batted with freedom and back themselves and that this is one of the best batting performances I’ve seen in a long time.”
Smith stated that heading into the clash against the Barras, they did not have any expectations on themselves.
Smith added that the Barramundis are a world class team that they are playing and is very excited to see PNG go to take part in the West Indies.
Dan has added that they will be cheering them on in their World Cup Campaign.
“There were not expectations. The instructions for the players were to go out there and play with a bit of freedom and back themselves and hopefully, things will go our way and towards the back end of the game, it certainly did.”
He made special mention to Huzaifa Akram, who was moved up the batting order and performed well in the second innings, joking that he had received a lot of talk from the spinner, but maintained that he putting a lot of effort in training in the lead up months to the series and it was great to see his hard work pay off.
The Carabaos will get to face Vanuatu in their last match of the series and Smith hopes that they can maintain their momentum leading into the match.