Garamuts hammered

THE group stage of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup came to an end as the Papua New Guinea (59 all out) crashed to a heavy defeat against neighbours Australia (370/8).
A 311-run loss made it the second highest in the history of the U19 Cricket World Cup.
After winning the toss, captain Vagi Karaho put Australia into bat with the hope of early wickets. And that is exactly what arrived in the second over of the match.
Australian opener Max Bryant was bowled for a duck by Sema Kamea. It was PNG’s first wicket of the tournament and it sparked wild celebrations by the Garamuts.
In fact, opening bowlers Kamea and James Tau bowled a tight line and were hard to get away and restricted the Australians to 36/1 after 10 overs.
Nathan McSweeney (156) and Sangha (88) put on a 250-run partnership, that all but decided which way the match was going to go.
The stand was finally broken in the 36th over of the match and it was obvious it would take a monumental effort from the Garamuts to break the partnership.
And that is exactly what James Tau did as he got both batsmen out on consecutive balls and was immediately on a hattrick.
The hattrick never came, but he finished with very impressive figures of 2-42 (off 10 overs including a maiden).
A fine performance at an economy rate of 4.2 in a match that saw the opposition score over 350 runs.
Param Uppal (61) and Austin Waugh (26) added 92 runs to get Australia to 370.
PNG’s batsmen could not handle Jason Ralston’s pace.
He removed the first three batters for single digit scores and kept the heat on with two more for a five-wicket haul in his opening spell.
Ralston came back to pick up two more to finish with 7-15.
Bowler Leke Morea (20) top-scored for the Garamuts.
PNG take on Canada, in their Plate League quarter-final today. – ICC