Barramundis tie series

The National Sports

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THE Papua New Guinea Barramundis have tied 1-1 with Malaysia in their Twenty-20 (T20) international series after recording a win and a loss over the weekend at the Bayuemas Oval.
In their series opener on Saturday, the Barramundis won by 77 runs thanks to player of the match Charles Amini Jr who scored 91 runs off 53 balls, including eight fours and four sixes contributing to PNG’s total of 206/3.
Yesterday’s fixture saw a change in batting order with head coach Tatenda Taibu giving more game time to the low order batters and a few bowlers which saw them lose by 63 runs.
Head coach Tatenda Taibu commended the team for their performance in Saturday’s game saying the team played confidently and got the win.
“We knew that 150 was par score (to win) and CJ (Amini) and Lega as well as the others batted well,” Taibu said.
“When it came to the fielding inning, we had control of the wickets and the bowlers executed well.”
In their batting inning on Saturday, opening batters Tony Ura and Sese Bau partnered well in the power play reaching 50 runs before Bau was caught out nearing the end of the fourth over.
Just after the end of the powerplay, Ura was caught out as Lega Siaka and Amini paired up to continue.
Siaka and Amini continued their batting prowess reaching 196 runs before Siaka was caught out in the 19th over. Hiri Hiri replaced him and continued the last over with Amini (not out) with a total 206/3.
In their fielding inning, all-rounder Amini showed form in taking out 3/18 in four overs with wicket contributions from Norman Vanua (2/22), Jack Gardner (2/27), John Kariko (1/19) and Bau (1/15).
Yesterday’s match took a different turn with a slow fielding inning as Malaysia posted 161/4 after 20 overs. Kariko continued his form taking out 2/22 in four overs as well as Amini’s 1/14 and Nosaina Pokana’s 1/17.
The Barramundis fell short to chase the target after being caught out in the 17th over with 98 runs. Amini posted 33 runs off 23 balls, with 24 off 32 from Hiri as they lose by 63 runs.
The tie in the Malaysia series ends the Barramundis tour with the team returning to Port Moresby tomorrow.