Raukele, Steamies leading the charge

Normal, Sports

RAUKELE and Steamships (STC) cricket clubs are leading the charge after the completion of the A reserve, U19 and U16 competitions yesterday at the Colts and Ken Lifu grounds.
Day 2 of the four-day competition saw the completion of the round robin matches in the U16, U19 and A reserve competitions, followed by the finals.
Raukele took on Poreporena in the grand final of the U19 division at Colts ground and after winning the toss, Raukele decided to bat in very gloomy conditions.
The conditions did not seem to faze the batsmen as Tony Ura got the Raukele boys off to a brilliant start hitting a six off the second ball of the game off Norman Vanua.
Vanua got his revenge on the next ball having Ura caught and bowled, trying to replicate the earlier shot.
Nathaniel Ura steadied the ship and guided Raukele to 51 before he was caught of the bowling of Nakula Vai.
Kelly Karo made a valuable 13, but the star of the innings was the PNG Garamuts World Cup captain, Jason Kila who smashed an unbeaten 49 which included five sixes and brought Raukele to finish up with 3/97 of their allotted eight overs.
In reply to the mammoth total, Poreporena got off to a brilliant start posting 44 runs in the first three overs, thanks to the PNG Garamuts World Cup wicket keeper, Steven Eno, who bludgeoned a quick 35 before he was caught off the bowling of Tony Ura.
It seemed that Raukele would cruise to victory with Poreporena needing 20 runs off the last over in drizzling rain.
Nakula Vai (17no) and Norman Vanua (16no) nearly reached the unlikely target, scoring 17 runs, which meant that Raukele won by two runs.
Overall, Raukele 3/97 defeated Poreporena 4/95 by two runs in the U19 grand final while in the U16 division United played STC in the grand final that saw STC 3/68 defeating United 5/67 by two wickets with five balls to spare.
With the playoff for the 3rd and 4th placings, STC cruised to a 25-run victory over Kilakila Cricket Club.
In the A reserve grand final, Raukele 2/87 defeated Kilakila 3/85 by three wickets with four balls to spare.