EAP squad finishes camp with another win
The International Cricket Council East Asia-Pacific squad finished its high performance camp with another win on Friday at Allan Border field in Brisbane.
Before Friday's game the squad were taken through their paces on Thursday as the squad went through the standard fitness and skills tests set by the Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence staff.
Though there was some tired and sore bodies the squad was looking forward to playing on the picturesque ground.
EAP won the toss and elected to bat on a overcast and humid day against the Australian Sports Gateway X1 who had a number of Australian u/19s players and rookie Queensland Bulls squad members.
Kobyashi (Japan) and Vani Vagi Morea (PNG) opened for the EAP team and started strongly again with some good stroke play and excellent running between wickets.
After a solid 25-run opening partnership, both openers went with in an over, both driving at good length balls and being caught behind.
This brought Captain Andrew Mansale (Vanuatu) and vice captain Chris Amini (PNG) to the crease.
Mansale started in his usual attacking fashion with a combination of cut shots and cover drives, while Amini supported well dropping the ball into gaps.
Amini was giving out caught in front for 20 while Mansale continued his aggressive approach with new batsmen Assad Vala (PNG).
With a few quick wickets including Mansale, who was out for 45, when he skied one to mid wicket, EAP looked likely to post a modest score just above 200.
This was until keeper batsmen Trevor Langa (Vanuatu) continued the onslaught and punished all bowlers with imaginative stroke play and a well timed batting power play. Langa and Maciu Guana (Fiji) took the score past 250, Langa went on to be the last man out for 65 off 58 balls and EAP were all out 276 off 48 overs.
ASG captain Lenny started well smashing six boundaries in three overs to be 0/32 before Wille Gavera (PNG) struck and EAP continued to apply pressure with some good field placements and tight bowling.
It never seemed ASG would threaten as it continued to loose wickets at regular intervals with no batsmen making a match-winning contribution. Jo Baba (Fiji) chipped in with four handy wickets to help dismiss bowl ASG for 252.
"It has been a very big week and we have had so many positives come out of it" EAP Coach Charlie Burke said.
"The opportunity these guys have with the facilities on offer and some of the best coaches is fantastic, but to perform how we did this week and the work ethic the players displayed during the whole week has been a real highlight to me."
"We have a very new squad that we started to build last year and though we have lost three to four key seasoned players it has giving the likes of Mansale, Amini and even young Trevor Langa an opportunity to stand up"
The majority of the squad will spend the summer playing grade cricket in Queensland, New South Wales or Victoria as part of the on going development to improve the playing standard amongst the Member countries.
The EAP squad to compete in the Australian Country Cricket Championships will be released on Wednesday 11th November. The squad of 14 will travel to Albury in New South Wales and compete against the best country cricketers in Australia from January 3 - 14th 2010.
The EAP Emerging Squad has started to arrive into Brisbane for the second week of the Squad Camps. The Emerging squad will play on the Sunshine Coast in a T20 match against the Scorchers on Sunday before training at the Centre of excellence on Monday.