Team Black win second on the trot

A SPIRITED perforamce from Papua New Guinea Barramundis skipper Assad Vala saw Team Black grab back-to-back wins during the second round of the Isuzu National Cup over the weekend. Friday’s match saw a low scoring affair with Vala managing to bag seven wickets from his 10 overs of off spin to help his side beat the Reds by 45 runs in the openinig match. The Reds won the toss and opted to field with the Blacks openers Lega Siaka (10 runs) and Vala (19 runs) being the highest scores for their disappointing total of 99 runs (all out) in the 30th over. A confident Reds side under Hiri Hiri were overturned quickly with Vala’s offbreaks causing havoc for a Reds batting order who were dismissed for a measly 54 runs. A higher scoring encounter on Saturday saw Team Black beat Team Yellow by three wickets with Vala scoring an impressive 78 runs not out to steal the game. Yellow batting first put together a solid team score of seven for 219 runs off their allotted 50 overs. Yellow’s Barra batsmen led the way with notable performances from Riley Hekure (43 runs), Sese Bau (39 runs) and Jason Kila (29 runs). The Yellow batsmen would fall victim to Black’s spinners with Boge Arua (3/46), Assad Vala (2/35) and Lega Siaka (2/41) taking the majority of wickets. Black started the run chase well, despite losing their first wicket (Sinaka Arua) with their score on 12, Travis Vuivagi from the Raukele Club in Moresby and Lega Siaka built a handy partnership taking the score to 55 before Siaka (32) was dismissed.