Vanua helped create history
By ROBINSON LEKA
PUTTING the team first and doing everything in his power to get the Barramundis over the finish line was the mentality that drove Norman Vanua to deliver one of Papua New Guinea cricket’s greatest performances to date.
With a career best of 54 runs from 48 balls, the all-rounder catapulted the national men’s cricket team to a fighting finish of 118 against Kenya in 2019, which led to his side to qualify for the T20 World Cup.
Kenya would later fall short in their chase after going down 73 all out.
His performance was a huge turning point in the Barras’ World Cup campaign, which has earned him a spot as a finalist for the SP Sports Awards’ male athlete of the year honour.
“To be honest, it was a shock to me after learning that I was named as a finalist,” he told The National.
“I didn’t think much about it and wasn’t too worried until I found out that I was a finalist.
“I still can’t believe that I’m in this position and I can’t describe how grateful I am to everyone around me.
“To be named alongside fellow sportsmen, who are also champions in their respective codes, is a huge honour.
“(Former Barra) Mahuru Dai, who is a relative and someone I look up to, was also the recipient of an SP Sports Award some years ago and thinking back to it, I could never have imagined being where I am today.”
The 27-year-old – from Aroma, Central, and Hanuabada, National Capital District – began his cricketing career with Poreporena in the Port Moresby Cricket Association, which is responsible for producing many representative players. He later moved to Coasters where he continued as a junior player moving up the ranks before eventually being called up to the national team in 2014.
The right-arm paceman became a mainstay for the Barramundis ever since and established himself as an experienced all-rounder for PNG.
Vanua’s career with the Barramundis saw him take part in the International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20 East Asia-Pacific qualifier and the World Cricket League division two in Namibia in 2018.
In June 2019, he was selected again to represent the country in the sixteenth edition of the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, where the Barras won gold.
His crowning moment came later that year during the ICC T20 World Cup qualifier in the United Arab Emirates.
Vanua took a hat-trick in PNG’s opener against Bermuda but it was his batting that saved the Barras from an almost disastrous start against the Kenyans.
PNG faltered in the opening innings with a score of 19 runs off six wickets with Vanua and Sese Bau (17 from 33) stepping to help PNG in their total of 118 over Kenya’s 73 all out.
The win solidified PNG’s standing in their group (five victories and one loss) and eventually saw them edge the Netherlands for an automatic qualification on a higher run-rate percentage.
“From the time that we started our campaign with the coach, we all knew what was at stake and we’ve all been through a lot to get there,” Vanua said, referring to mentor Joe Dawes, who is in contention for the official of the year honour.
“For the Kenya game, seeing my teammates go down like that was really hard and I told myself that when I went out there, I wasn’t going to let the game finish like this. I’m not going to let this happen because we’ve come close to qualifying in the past and we missed out and I know how much this means.
“We’ve come a long way since the start of this tournament and we’re not going to give up that easy.”
Following the deferral of the 2020 T20 World Cup to this year, Vanua and the Barras continue to train as they prepare for PNG’s maiden appearance in the showpiece event in October in India.