Local Stars Shine Bright in Monier Shield

Some of PNG's biggest cricket names shone bright in Round 1 of both the Men's and Women's events of the Monier Shield on the weekend, with last years T20 champion the Air Nuigini Jets setting the early pace.

The Monier Shield is Cricket PNG's National Cricket Championship and features players from all over PNG.

The event forms Cricket's National Selection trials and will be part of selecting the Hebou Barramundi's Squad and Emerging players squads for 2011/12.

Round 1 saw the Air Niugini Jets captained by former U/19 garamut Captain John Boge Reva play a double header that got them off to a flying start. Winning both games the Jets sit on top of the table with 12 points after the weekend.

In the Men's matches the outstanding performance without doubt was Charles amini Jnr who having just had an excellent tournament at Arafura games turned on the magic with a sparkling 96 to nearly become the first local centurion on the turf wickets at Amini and Colts.

CJ as he is known then backed up his performance with 47 on Sunday in his teams second win for the weekend.

U/17 national Captain Dogodo Bau again showed his class as he anchored the Titans innings. He was the reason they scored a competitive 10/173 and nearly pulled off a win losing by just 4 runs.

Air Niugini Captain John Boge Reva was the star performer with the ball on Saturday taking 5/16 to steer the Jets home. This was then eclipsed on Sunday when Lister Oala took an outstanding 5/14 on Colts Cricket ground for Monier Miners to destroy BSP.

PNG International debutant at the Arafura games Tony Menaga was again consistent taking 4/12 for the Jets to drive them to victory on Sunday on Amini Park. His accuracy and great length was a key to his performance.

In Women's Matches last years Finalists Dulux Magic and UMW Saints both returned to their winning ways by easily winning their 1st round matches.

PNG National players Norma Ovasuru, Varoi Morea, Ura Rigani, Pauke Siaka and Kila Frank were prominent performers. New faces on the pitches also emerged and showed that not all of the National players were going to be allowed to dominate.

The Monier Shield continues this weekend.