Lewas set sight to qualify for next year’s world cup

THE Papua New Guinea Lewas have their sights set on qualifying for next year’s 50-over World Cup with the team confident about their preparations ahead of this month’s qualifiers in Zimbabwe.
Lewas assistant coach Mahuru Dai told The National on Friday that the priority for the squad was qualifying following a two-month training schedule in Port Moresby that concluded on Friday.
The Lewas completed their fifth and final trial match against Under-19 national men’s team on Friday and were now in quarantine.
“We’ve set our goals for this tournament and the main goal for us to try to qualify for the World Cup,” he said.
“The players have set their own goals in training and what they will be aiming to do, but the overall goal for the team is to do our best to qualify.
“We had four 50-over matches and we had to cut short the last match to a twenty-20 fixture due to our schedule around quarantine and travel.
“For the 50-over format, the women haven’t been able to have some time with this style of the game, so it was a really big task in getting ready for this.
“We started in September and it has been a really good challenge for us to get the players prepared.
“The team have really worked hard to get to this stage.
“We’ve had our ups and downs on the international stage, but I’m sure we have learnt from those experiences and have really pulled together during these past two months.”
The Lewas, under skipper Kaia Arua, will be in quarantine for the next five days before they are cleared to travel on Saturday for the qualifiers.