Papua New Guinea’s top cricketers will face off in a battle for supremacy with the SP Super Series Twnety-20 finals at stake this Sunday.
The battle will be a test of friendship and brother hood especially when Brian Bell captain Rarua Dikana and Trukai Invincibles captain John Ovia go to war in round two of the twenty-20 series at the Colts Ground at 10am on Sunday.
Both men are current leaders of the seniors men’s cricket team with Dikana the skipper and Ovia his vice captain.
But on Sunday the battle lines will be drawn as Dikana will be hoping to get another win under the belt while Ovia is determined to get into the winners circle.
Invincibles have the depth in batting but really need to humble themselves and be patience in order to be at their best.
Brian Bell after a close win over Steamships Hardware really need their opening and middle order to carry the batting responsibility instead of passing the back to the tailender who have been impressive with the ball.
The other 10am match at Amini Park will have Steamships Hardware play agaisntg a fired up Telikom Titans side.
The Gavera Rarua coached side will be gunning for revenge after a rather embrassing one run loss in round one.
Rarua in an interview this week at training said ‘the bolts’ and ‘screws’ on those silly errors will be tighten for sure and expects his side to reflect and improve on them at training.
He also indicated that there will be a few changes to side especially in bowling with one of the opening bowlers to be replaced.
Titans will have already put their convincing eight wicket win in their history book and look forward to starting fresh again and hopefully repeat their devastating performance again.
The round three matches at 2pm will witness Telikom Titans taking on Brian Bell at Amini Park and Trukai Invincibles locking horns with Steamships Hardware.
But the real pressure will be on the losing teams from last weekend Trukai Invincible and Steamships Hardware to step up and get into the winning mood and book a place in the twenty-20 finals next Sunday.
Trukai Invincible skipper John Ovia needs to play a captain’s knot to instill confidence back into his side after a below par performance last Sunday.
This Sunday will witness a double does of Twenty-20 action as the four teams play round 2 and 3 of the SP Super Series Twenty-20 series at the Colts and Amini Park respectively.
The results from these matches will determine which two sides will playoff in the final next Sunday.
After a suffering an eight wicket loss at the hands of a young Telikom Titans side Ovia admitted yesterday that he was bitterly disappointed with the side’s batting performance.
“Definitely I’m not at all happy with the way we batted last Sunday, I guess the guys were over confident and thought with the batting depth we had we could easily run out winners.
“I also thought that after Mahuru (Dai) got out cheaply with six runs and I got out with a duck our batting morale just dropped.
“After that match we had a good talk about it and agreed that it was something we all would work hard on at training this week.
“There would be a couple of changes but I will not be revealing any details of that as yet.
“Our coach Serua (Loa) was obliviously upset with the result especially in our batting so he told us to put that at the back of our minds and start fresh this weekend,” Ovia said.
Steamships Hardware coach Gavera Rarua at this weeks team training session also expressed his disappointment at the way his side let Brian Bell sneak in and steal what could have been their first win.
Rarua particular pointed out one of his pace bowlers who failed to be at his best when the team was in trouble.
“Loa Nou and John Haoda were our strike opening bowlers but Loa especially did not bowl well he got tired very quickly and we just gave away runs that could have not been runs at all.
“But luckily our spinners Rarua Ipi and Toka Gaudi who were brought in by the skipper managed to slow the run rate down,” Rarua said.
The current PNG U19 coach also was very critical on his side fielding saying a lot of fumbles gave away the extra runs.
“The fielding too was not good there were many fumbles that gave away runs that were only meant to be singles, we had two run out chances especially when Kila Pala missed one which I thought was the turning point of the game,” Rarua said.
Rarua indicated that he might be changing his opening bowlers depending on the outcome of this weeks training.
He gave a big rap to his captain Chris Amini (24), Frank Doura (20) and wicketkeeper Daniel Alu (30) for their contribution in the last round.
“I believe this trio can step up again to do the job, Daniel and Chris especially are players I’m counting on to be the pillars for the middle order when our openers collapse early,” he said.
ENDS
Last Modified on 18/04/2008 16:18