U19 cricket team miss out on ticket to T20 world cup

THE Under-19 national women’s cricket squad arrived in Port Moresby last Thursday after missing their ticket to the inaugural U19 Women’s Twenty-20 (T20) World Cup, just three runs short of surpassing Indonesia’s 8/89 target in the East Asia-Pacific qualifiers last Tuesday.
PNG recorded a win and a loss and played the decider with the aim to qualify.
But after losing early and regular wickets from the seventh over, they were all bowled out by the final over at the Udayana Cricket Ground in Bali.
“Although we didn’t achieve the desired results in Tuesday’s game, we can hold our heads high, knowing that we tried our best and got within three runs of our target,” head coach Kath Hempenstall told The National.
“After losing the first match of the series, we had a fantastic team performance on Monday to level the series.
“It was pleasing to improve on some of the facets of the game that we had been working on throughout the tour, such as our running between the wickets and fielding.”
Hempenstall recalled their opening match against Indonesia last Monday, saying that the hosts had outplayed her side.
“Indonesia had all the momentum early and were 1/83,” she said.
“But we got the game back on our terms and managed to keep them to 9/105.
“We lost wickets at regular intervals which didn’t allow us to build any significant partnerships.
“We knew that we didn’t play anywhere near our best that day.
“But we were confident that if we could improve on a few key areas of our game, we’d get the desired result in the second match, which we did and won by four wickets.”
Dika Lohia was named as the player of that match for taking five wickets for eight runs.
Lohia was also named as the best bowler and player.
“The squad have learnt a lot from their first tour and will continue to train together as a group,” Hempenstall said.