PNG suffer 50-run loss to Nepal in final

By PATRICIA KEAMO
A SEMA Kamea hat-trick (3/11) in one over was not enough to save the national men’s cricket team as they suffered a 50-run loss to hosts Nepal in the final of a twenty-20 tri-nations series on Monday.
Despite the Barramundis taking early wickets, Nepal’s high-quality batting in the last four overs saw coach Carl Sandri’s men concede 56 runs as the hosts reached 6/168 by the 20th over.
Left-handed batsman Sese Bau led the chase with 59 runs from 38 balls, but there was not enough support from the other batters as the Barramundis were all caught out with 118 runs by the 16th over.
Sandri told The National that Bau’s performance, in which he hit six sixes and a four, kept the Barramundis in the fight.
“Given the series and how well the batters had gone, it was just a little bit disappointing that no-one could go with him,” he said.
“The target being 169 as we’ve showed before, we’ve made that runs every game previously.
“Ironically, in what should have got us through the final was consistent, really high-class batting performances.
“Unfortunately, today (Monday), the batting did let us down.
“We bowled 15 or 16 really high-quality overs, but the back four overs got away from us.
“They are a strong team and they put us away when their batters had great opportunities.
“They did that with their last four overs to record 56 runs.
“We lost wickets and the run count.
“We weren’t scoring runs and we just dug ourselves too big a hole against a quality opposition.”