The Group Stage of the Under 19 Cricket World Cup came to an end as the Hebou PNG U19 Garamuts crashed to a heavy defeat against neighbours Australia U19s.
A 311-run loss made it the second highest in the history of the Under 19 Cricket World Cup. The match however, started off on a positive note.
After winning the toss, captain Vagi Karaho put Australia into bat with the hope of early wickets. And that is exactly what arrived in the 2nd over of the match.
Australian opener Max Bryant bowled for a duck by Sema Kamea. It was Papua New Guinea’s first wicket of the tournament and it sparked wild celebrations by the Garamuts. In fact, opening pacers Kamea and James Tau bowled a tight line and were very tough to get away and had restricted the Australians to 36/1 after 10 overs.
Tau even bowled a maiden over to Australian captain Jason Sangha, who came in at No. 3.
The celebrations though, were to be short lived as Nathan McSweeney – the lad replacing Jack Edwards as opener who scored back to back half centuries for Australia – was about to have a match to remember.
Sangha and McSweeney put on a 250 run partnership that all but decided which way the match was going to go.
After winning the toss, captain Vagi Karaho put Australia into bat with the hope of early wickets. And that is exactly what arrived in the 2nd over of the match.
The stand was finally broken in the 36th over of the match and it was obvious it would take a monumental effort from the Garamuts to break the partnership. And that is exactly what James Tau did as he got both batsmen out on consecutive balls and was immediately on a hat trick.
The hat trick never came, but he finished with very impressive figures of 10-1-42-2. A fine performance at an economy rate of 4.2 in a match that saw the opposition score over 350 runs.
A barrage of quick singles, doubles and some heavy hitting ensured McSweeney made the maximum of his chance and finished the match with 156 runs to his name, in an innings that included 22 boundaries.
It was looking ominous in the 22nd over, when a comparison was made to New Zealand, who had smashed Kenya for 436-runs in their match the previous day, were 120/0 to Australia’s 131/1 at the same stage.
McSweeney brought up his century in style in the 27th over when he smashed a 6 from Vagi Karaho’s bowling. Sangha 88(102) had kept the scoreboard ticking over and reached his half century only an over before.
In came Param Uppal and Austin Waugh – son of Aussie Legend Steve Waugh – and they picked up from where their predecessors left. Waugh 26(27) kept Uppal 61(42) on strike, to continue his pinch hitting.
The pair put up a 92-run partnership in just under 11 overs, before lightning struck twice for the Australian Under 19s and this time, it was Daure William Aiga’s turn to be on a hat trick.
Aiga got both Uppal and Waugh on consecutive deliveries in the 46th over, the score 345/5. The Australian’s pushed on from there but PNG kept picking up wickets.
Australia were eventually stopped at 370/8, a good 60 runs short of New Zealand’s record total against Kenya. Kamea, Leke Morea, Tau and Aiga all got 2 wickets each, with some sharp catching by the Garamuts.
But they, just like most of Papua New Guinea’s batsmen, could not handle Jason Ralston’s pace. He removed the opening 3 of the first 5 for single digit scores and returned to remove Tau and Morea before finishing with very impressive figures of 7/15.
Morea and Tau’s partnership had inched Papua New Guinea over their lowest ever total at the tournament and the day finally came to an end with a heavy defeat, in the 25th over of PNG’s innings.
While the bowlers put on a show, Papua New Guinea’s batting effort had a similar story to the last two defeats.
The Garamuts lost their openers Igo Mahuru and Simon Atai, who got himself run out again, in the 2nd over itself and things did not improve much from there as PNG found themselves at 26/7 in the 9th over itself. It was time for PNG’s bowlers, who had done so well in pegging the Aussies back, to shine with the bat and Leke Morea 20(66) and James Tau capped their fine bowling performances with a mini-resistance to the Aussie attack.
Australia qualified as runners up of Group B, along with India who topped the table with another 10 wicket victory – this time against Zimbabwe.
Unless Canada spring a surprise and inflict a heavy defeat on England in the Group C encounter, Australia Under 19s will play against arch-rivals England’s Under 19s in the Super League quarter finals match, while Papua New Guinea will play Canada, in their Plate League Quarter final match on the 22nd of January.