Solid start for Barras

Sports

THE Hebou PNG Barramundis got off to a solid start at the close of play on the first day of their Intercontinental Cup four-day match against Scotland at Amini Park.
The hosts ended the day with 285/7 after 82.4 overs of play.
PNG won the toss and elected to bat with opener Vani Vagi Morea (53) getting his side off to a sloid start with a half century.
The Hanuabada man hitting nine boundaries as he tested the Scottish bowling attack on a good wicket.
Lega Siaka (48), Sese Bau (51) and Jack Vare (42) all made valuable contributions but unfortunately no one could go on to notch up a big score despite getting good starts.
The PNG top order could not make a significant score due mainly to the quality of the Socttisg bowling.
Led by Safyaan Sharif, who bagged four wickets (4-69), Scotland were able to put the clamp in the runs.
The Scots with their disciplined blowing and fielding were able to stifle any of the promising starts made by the PNG batsmen.
The middle order failed to withstand the pressure applied by the Scots as wickets fell in their attempts to lift the run rate.
This left the PNG tail with the responsibility of batting out the day’s play, as Chad Soper (32 not out) and Norman Vanua (17 not out) steadied the ship will look to get coach Jason Gillespie’s side to a score of 300-plus today.
“We are in a good position even though we could have done more with the batting, but that is the way it is,” PNG vice-captain and wicket-keeper Jack Vare-Kevere said.
“A number of us had starts and it would have been great if a number of us could have converted them into bigger scores. We need to bat on tomorrow, hopefully to post a big score and then take 10 wickets.”
Play resumes at Amini Park today at 9.40am, with PNG having two wickets in hand with the hopes of making meaningful contributions to the first innings total.
However, the Scots look likely of making short work of the PNG tail, and would be eager to start chipping away at the first innings total of PNG.
1st Innings – PNG 285/7 (Sese Bau 51, Lega Siaka 48, Jack Vare-Kevere 42, Chad Soper 32 not out, Norman Vanua 17 not out; Safyaan Sharif 4-69, Michael Leask 1-21, Mark Watt 1-49, Alasdair Evans 1-53)