PNG Notch Historic Win Over Nepal

The PNG Hebou Barramundis have claimed their first win in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier with an emphatic 35 run victory over Nepal.

After two narrow losses to tournament powerhouses Afghanistan and Canada, the Hebou Barramundi's continued their improvement and outplayed the Nepalese in all facets of the game.

It is arguably PNG's greatest moment so far in their cricketing history by breaking through with an historic victory in their biggest tournament to date.

The Hebou Barramundi's batted first and despite losing the early wickets of Ura (0) and Vala (6) consolidated in the middle order with excellent contributions from Gerraint Jones (32 off 35 balls) and Chris Amini who batted with great maturity to finish on 38 not out off only 32 balls. Amini hit 2 sixes during his invaluable innings. Mahuru Dai (12) and Jack Vare (19 off only 8 balls) shared crucial partnerships with Amini to help boost the final score to a competitive 8/137 off 20 overs.

The Barramundi bowlers then set about a very disciplined display of tight and pressurized bowling to never allow the Nepal innings to gain momentum. The mixture of pace and spin were all amongst the wickets as they restricted Nepal to only 8/102 off their 20 overs.

In a very even display the best of the bowlers and man of the match was Chris Amini who took 2 for 20 off 4 overs.

The victory will give PNG great confidence for the remaining 4 matches of the tournament.