Vanua likes to play against Scotland, says Assad Vala
Oct 19, 2021
Muscat [Oman], October 19 : Papua New Guinea (PNG) skipper Assad Vala praised his teammate and all-rounder Norman Vanua and said that he likes playing against Scotland.
PNG faced a defeat against Scotland PNG by 17 runs in Group B of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup here at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground (Ministry Turf 1) on Tuesday.
"They love hitting the ball. The batsmen haven't shown it yet but the lower order likes to hit the ball. Vanua is a really good batsman, batting all-rounder, bowling all-rounder you can call whatever you want. He likes playing against Scotland, scored few runs against them, he was on again today," said the PNG skipper in a post-match presentation.
"If we can play more games against teams like Scotland and Tier 1 nations, we can express ourselves more. We haven't started well in both games. Our bowling gave away runs at the start, we pegged them back, we bowled well in the end. We believed we could chase it down, but we didn't start as well as we would have liked," he added.
Vala also called Scotland as a very 'good bowling' team which always puts them under pressure.
"Scotland are a very good bowling team, they put us under pressure early on. We fought back really well in the middle and towards the end but it wasn't enough," he said.
Chasing 166, PNG got off to a horror start as the side lost five wickets and was reduced to 35/5. Tony Ura (2), Lega Siaka (9), Assad Vala (18), Charles Amini (1), and Simon Atai (2) all failed to leave a mark with the bat and Scotland was firmly at the top.
Sese Bau and Norman Vanua then put on 32 runs for the sixth wicket, but the required run-rate got a bit too much to handle and as a result, Bau (24) ended up losing his wicket to Chris Greaves, reducing PNG to 67/6 in the 12th over. Norman Vanua and Kiplin Doriga then provided a real scare to Scotland as the duo put on a quickfire stand of 53 runs for the seventh wicket. Mark Watt then dismissed Doriga (18) and PNG needed 42 runs to win from the final three overs.
Vanua (47) however perished in the 18th over, and with this PNG's hopes were dashed and Scotland registered a 17-run victory.
Earlier, Richie Berrington played a knock of 70 as Scotland posted a score of 165/9 in the allotted twenty overs.
Scotland will now be facing Oman, while PNG will be going against Bangladesh on October 21 in the Men's T20 World Cup.
