EAP Finish 4th at ACCC

East Asia-Pacific (EAP) has gone down fighting against tournament champions New South Wales Country in their final match at the Australian Country Cricket Championships (ACCC) in Geelong on Thursday.

Despite the loss EAP finished the tournament in 4th place with three victories, making it their most successful performance at an ACCC event.

"It was very pleasing to be able to create some EAP history by winning three games for the first time ever," said EAP coach Tom Evans. "It was a little disappointing not to win one of the last two games that would have kept us in second place, but still great to see some improvement in our application in the two day matches."

EAP vice-captain Jack Vare was presented with the Ian Healy Award for the tournament's best keeper as voted by the umpires, capping off a terrific event for the young PNG gloveman that included nine catches.

"Jack was a great contributor throughout the two weeks with both the bat and with the gloves," said Evans. "His 58 in the first game was instrumental to us coming away with a win in that match."

"His work with the gloves and his enthusiasm were consistent throughout the event and this is just reward for a great performance."

In yesterday's match NSW Country got off to a flyer against EAP racing to 1-66 off the first 15 overs. The steady flow of runs continued as the NSW batsman punished the EAP pace attack of Joel Tom (PNG), Faasao Mulivai (Samoa) and Patrick Matautaava (Vanuatu).

With NSW cruising at 2-95, the spin combination of Andrew Mansale (Vanuatu) and Mahuru Dai (PNG) sparked an EAP fight back keeping the score within reach at 5-174 off 43 overs.

However once the pair had completed their 10 overs each NSW Country went back on the attack to smash 84 off the last seven overs to finish 6-258.

In reply EAP slumped to 4-43 before Mansale and Dai once again combined, this time with the bat to keep the possibility of an unlikely victory on the table.

However after putting on a solid 43 run partnership the pair was dismissed in quick succession to virtually eliminate any chance of a win.

Vani Vagi Morea (PNG) tried hard in the latter overs with a good innings of 37 not out, however had little support and EAP were eventually all out for 184.

"It was pretty disappointing not to finish the way we had hoped today," said Evans. "Although we played some periods of good cricket we were not able to sustain our effort for the whole 100 overs."

Short Scoreboards:

Round 7: New South Wales Country 6-258 (M Dai 2-37) defeated East Asia-Pacific 10-184, 44 overs. (V Morea 37 not out, A Mansale 26, B Mailata 25, M Dai 24, J Kila 23)