EAP outclassed by NSW Country

The ICC East Asia-Pacific (EAP) suffered a comprehensive 132 run defeat at the hands of top of the table and undefeated New South Wales Country at the 2013 Australian Country Cricket Championships in their two day match that concluded on Friday.

Despite the loss, favourable results in the other fixtures means that EAP remain fourth on the table with two one day matches remaining in the tournament.

"We knew it was going to be a tough match as NSW has been a class above everyone at this tournament so far," said EAP captain Chris Amini who found form with the bat making a half century. "We must now regroup and try and win our remaining two matches which would give us our best result ever at these championships if we can do it."

NSW won the toss and elected to bat and found themselves struggling at 6-149 thanks to some good early bowling from Patrick Matautaava (Vanuatu) and Norman Vanua (PNG) both picking up two early wickets.

However when Pat Rosser came to the crease EAP's target of restricting NSW to under 200 was quickly put to bed as Rosser smashed an amazing 110 off just 92 balls ultimately setting up the win for his side.

In the end NSW were all out for 331 with Matautaava the best of the bowlers for EAP with three wickets.

In reply the PNG combination of Assad Vala and captain Chris Amini gave EAP a sniff with both making half centuries, however EAP failed to string together enough solid partnerships to pose any genuine threat and were eventually dismissed for 199.

Vala finished with 68 and Amini 51.

NSW then had another bat prior to the conclusion of play and finished the day 8-188. Tony Ura had a golden two over spell taking 3-3.

EAP's next match is a 50 over game against Western Australia Country on Sunday.

Short Scoreboard:

Round 5 (10 & 11 January): New South Wales Country 331 all out (P Matautaava 3-64, N Vanua 2-45) defeated East Asia-Pacific 199 all out (A Vala 68*, C Amini 51)

Standings

1.NSW 50.54
2.Victoria 43.50
3.Queensland 33.85
4.East Asia-Pacific 30.74
5.Northern Territory 29.87
6.Western Australia 28.27
7.South Australia 26.41
8.ACT 26.13