Gillespie happy with Barras tour

PAPUA New Guinea Barramundis head coach Jason Gillespie was happy with the recent tour of Queensland and Northern Territory ahead of the International Cricket Council’s Intercontinental Cup (four-day) and World Cricket League Championship (50-over) round six fixtures against Scotland in Port Moresby.
“I was incredibly pleased with the tour. It challenged the players with the quality of opposition and the different situations we found ourselves in,” Gillespie said.
“Our goal for the tour was adaptability, think for yourself (be proactive), learn from everything and progression, not perfection.
“I was also very pleased with the communication between the lads regarding game situations, the opposition and the conditions.”
The Barramundis returned to Port Moresby yesterday after the month-long tour of Queensland and Northern Territory, where they played a total of 12 matches  — four wins, one tie and seven losses.
“They were working things out for themselves and as coaches we were able to provide support and feedback in our post-match reviews. There were a lot of good peer feedback which was fantastic,” Gillespie said.
“Our fielding improved as the tour went on. In Darwin in particular our fielding was outstanding. Feedback from opposition coaches was that our bowling plans and execution were of high quality which was nice to hear,” he said.
“We need to work on our top four batsmen doing the bulk of the work with the bat and reduce the number of extras we bowl with the ball.”
The Barramundis have a couple of days off, before turning their attention to the fixtures against Scotland.
Fixtures: Sun-Wed, Oct 1-4 – PNG v Scotland (ICup four-dayer); Fri, Oct 6 – PNG v Scotland (ODI); Sun, Oct 8 – PNG v Scotland (ODI).