Irupara scrapes through after tight finish in Central Cup

IRUPARA scraped their way into the Dulux Women’s Central Cup after beating the hosts, Hula in the grand final of the Dulux Women’s Central Cup Division 4 championships by three runs.
After winning the toss, Irupara batted first on a magnificent day at Hula in front of a large crowd.
Irupara came in with another strong batting performance scoring 110 runs of their allotted 10 overs.
Irupara’s Numa Alu was again outstanding with the bat scoring 47 runs before being dismissed for an lbw off the hands of Ai Vali (1/24) while Kila David, with 11 runs, was the next best for Irupara.
Hula got off to a disastrous start falling to 2/8 of 1.3 overs thanks to great bowling by Alu (1/29) and a run out by Alukuni.
With the help from a vocal home crowd, Hula slowly rebuilt their innings, thanks largely to Gevena Alu (22) and Elisha Renagi (51) not out, who got the match back on par.
The final came down to the last over when Hula needed 13 runs for victory with Renagi and Vali Kila at the crease and eventually ended with Renagi needing to make six runs of the final ball. However, she only managed two, resulting in Irupara winning by three runs.
Alu of Irupara was named player of the series for her outstanding efforts with bat.
Irupara was undefeated through the round robin stages right up to their win against Hula in the grand final.
Irupara will advance to the semi finals of the Dulux Women’s Central Women’s Cup which will be held on March 15.
Dulux donated paints to the Irupara village for winning the Division 4 title and also donated sporting equipment to the four competing villages in Division 4 while the eventual Dulux Women’s Central Cup champions will receive a winning cheque for K2,000.
Cricket PNG has organised the event to celebrate the PNG Lewas cricket team that will be going to this year’s Pepsi ICC East Asia Pacific (EAP) women’s trophy in Sano, Japan in early May.
PNG is currently ranked 15th in the world of women’s cricket.