Samoa’s tears of joy

 SAMOA pulled off an upset in women’s T20 cricket when they beat Papua New Guinea by three runs in the Pacific Games gold medal playoff on Saturday.

The second innings of the nail-biting final at Amini Park was played in light rain.

Samoa, who beat Vanuatu in the semi-final the same morning, managed to restrict PNG in difficult conditions to claim a famous victory.

Lewas coach Rodney Maha said the Samoans played smarter cricket and deserved their victory.

“They were the better team on the day,” Maha said.

“Considering the conditions and the way the weather changed later in the afternoon the advantage was with Samoa but we lost control once that happened.

“We were cruising in the run chase at none for 40 odd by the end of the eighth but things went downhill from there.

“Credit to the Samoans they bowled a great line and length and kept it tight and for us there were too many dot balls and that put us under pressure,” he said. 

Maha said his side had not adjusted to the conditions in the second innings and gave away too many runs with some wayward bowling and fielding in the first innings. 

In front of a vocal home crowd, the Lewas were on top early, with Samoa 20/3 before captain Regina Lili’i and Faela Pula combined to steady the innings. 

Regular wickets continued to fall with Samoa eventually making 103 off their 20 overs. Lili’i was the top scorer with 30 while Tanya Ruma took 3-11 for PNG.

PNG’s run chase started strongly, with openers Norma Ovasuru and Varoi Morea continuing their good form, putting on 37 for the opening wicket.  

But Morea’s departure triggered a collapse of 21/5 and saw the momentum swing to Samoa.

Ruma’s 23 off 28 balls almost saw the PNG home before they fell agonisingly short on home turf. 

Marita Paulo took four crucial wickets to finish with 4-23.

It was Samoa’s first win over PNG and it showed on the faces of the Samoan team when the moment of victory came with tears on the faces of many of the players.

Fiji beat Vanuatu by 12 runs to claim the bronze medal. 

Ruci Muriyalo’s 72 off 36 balls, including 7 sixes, ensured Fiji posted a competitive score of 118 which the Vanuatu batters were unable to reach.

Cook Islands took fifth position with a strong eight wicket win over New Caledonia.

Final medal results:

Gold: Samoa

Silver: Papua New Guinea

Bronze: Fiji

Play-off match summaries:

Gold medal match

Samoa 9/103 (20) Regina Lili’i (30), Matile Uliao (10), Tanya Ruma (3/11), Norma Ovasuru (2/8) bt PNG 9/100 (20) Norma Ovasuru (36), Tanya Ruma (23*), Marita Paulo (4/23), Matile Uliao (2/24) by 3 runs

Bronze medal match

Fiji 8/118 (20) Ruci Muriyalo (72), Selina Solman (3/3) bt Vanuatu 10/106 (19.1) Rachel Andrew (43), Luanne Rika (2/8), Ruci Muriyalo (2/12) by 12 runs