PNG miss qualification

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THE national men’s cricket team missed the chance to qualify for their second Twenty-20 (T20) World Cup after losing to hosts Zimbabwe by 27 runs in the semifinals on Friday.
Zimbabwe ended their innings with 5/199 with the Barramundis chasing a target of 200 runs to win, but losing early wickets in the first five overs impacted their batting.
Tony Ura’s 66 runs from 35 balls gave hope to the Carl Sandri-coached side, but the remaining batters weren’t able to finish off.
Sandri told The National yesterday that it was disappointing to miss out on qualifying, however, he was impressed with the team’s performance despite the results.
“Our consistent performance put us through to the semifinals which was basically a ‘winner takes all to the World Cup’ game which we played against Zimbabwe,” Carl said.
“They are a full member (of the International Cricket Council) and a test-playing nation who have been for many decades.
“We knew we had to be at our best all day.
“This group has shown their belief in their batting and their ability to continue chasing the score from any situation which we found ourselves one for none, losing a wicket in the first ball.
“I was genuinely proud of them, especially in the chase.
“Tony has just been an absolutely amazing player for us this year really in T20 cricket.
“His statistics are phenomenal.
“The whole team just relied on him and he just put the team on his back.
“With four overs left against Zimbabwe, we scored more runs than them at the exact same point.
“We really thought we had a chance in the 16th over in the chase, Tony was out there giving us the hope and set the game.
“However, we weren’t able to finish off which was unfortunate.
“We gave ourselves a chance and left everything out there and that was great.”
Sandri said while the result was disappointing, the team’s performance was admirable.
“It was a great demonstration of PNG cricket, of what we stand for and a great exhibition,” he said recently.
Out of World Cup contention, the Barramundis will face the United States in the third-place playoff before returning to PNG.