THE Papua New Guinea Under 19 team created history on Monday when the juniors won their first ever match at the U19 world cup in Johor Baru in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
And the win was made more special when PNG qualified to the next stage of the plate finals with a seven wicket win over Bermuda in the plate quarter finals at the Johor Cricket Academy on Monday.
A courageous 76 not out of 55 balls from man of the match Tony Ura ensured that the East Asia Pacific champions broke a U19 world cup hoodoo that has been haunting PNG U19 teams since in their last three world cups.
Ura’s 70 runs included eight 4s and three 6s.
Earlier, Bermuda won the toss and chose to bat but were all bowled out for 102 in 34.2 overs which included 19 extras.
Bowlers Willie Gavera (1/34), Jacob Mado (2/12), Loa Nou (1/20), Joel Tom (2/25), Jason Kila (1/1) and skipper Colin Amini (1/5) grabbed wickets on a turf which had too much bounce and was suitable for bowling and batting.
The opening attack led by Gavera and Mado witnessed the two fast bowlers claiming three wickets in the first 10 overs putting Bermuda in a lot of trouble at 3/30.
But Bermuda managed to show some resistance when their skipper Rodney Trott blasted 23 runs off 45 balls before all rounder Joel Tom had him caught by Gavera at mid off.
Before the fall of the sixth wicket saw a 16 run partnership between Terryn Fray (10) and Malachi Jones (11) add a bit a respect to their target before Tom and spinners Colin Amini and Jason Kila cleaned up the Bermuda’s tail.
In reply Bermuda gave PNG’s run chase a scare when fast bowler Malachi Jones cleaned bowled opener Alfred Amini for a duck.
But it took a 60 run partnership stand between Tony Ura (76) and Tanti Heni (15) to steer PNG to a comfortable position to win its first ever U19 world cup quarter final match.
At lunch PNG were 1/53 after 9 overs with Ura making 39 runs and Heni making 7 runs as they slowly built up the foundation to victory.
When play resumed Bermuda’s spin bowlers led by skipper Rodney Trott (1/24) and Tamauri Tucker (1/22) took a wicket each to once again put PNG in a shaky run chase.
But Bermuda’s hopes of cleaning up PNG quickly faded when vice-captain Arua Dikana (6) came in and supported Ura to reach the target in 18.4 overs with seven wickets in hand.
Before that Ura reached his first international half century at the 14th over.