Papua New Guinea suffered a crushing 10-wicket defeat by Oman in their debut appearance at the T20 Cricket World Cup.
The Barramundis didn't score enough runs. Photo: AFP
After being put into bat the Barramundis made a disastrous start against the hosts in Al Amerat, losing opening batters Tony Ura and Lega Siaka without a run being scored.
Captain Assad Vala and all-rounder Charles Amini put on 81 runs for the third wicket but their dismissals sparked another collapse as PNG went from 102 for 3 to 118 for 9.
After being set 130 to win, Oman cruised to their target with 38 balls to spare and Assad Vala said they simply didn't score enough runs.
"I thought we fought back really well, putting ourselves in a really good position to post a total to give ourselves a chance, but on that wicket 129 was never going to be enough," he said.
"And the way we bowled and fielded also didn't give us a chance so I think that was it, it wasn't a good game for us."
Vala top scored with 56 runs from 43 balls, including three sixes, and said they could take some positives from their initial response after losing both openers in the first two overs.
"We showed some character getting to the end of our power-play at 40-odd after losing two wickets early on, so I was really happy with that. I think a lot of improvement needs to be done."
A brilliant half-century from Papua New Guinea skipper Assad Vala #T20WorldCup | #OMNvPNG | https://t.co/dYPcIueHIP pic.twitter.com/Hcl0kmaD14
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) October 17, 2021
The veteran batsmen said the dismissal of Amini was the turning point.
"We were going really well. I think the wicket was at a really crucial situation because we were trying to launch," he said.
"I think we were going at a really good rate and had a really good plan at the ten over break when coach came. As soon as we tried to launch then CJ (Amini) got run out. I think that was a really disappointing moment for us."
Oman captain Zeeshan Maqsood was the chief destroyer, taking 4 for 20 from his four overs to earn man of the match honours, before openers Jatinder Singh (72 off 42 balls) and Aqib Ilyas (50 off 43 balls) guided the hosts to victory with more than six overs in hand.
Amini departs ☝️
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) October 17, 2021
His terrific knock of 37 comes to an end after some brilliant bit of fielding from Oman to force a run out. #T20WorldCup | #OMNvPNG | https://t.co/dYPcIueHIP pic.twitter.com/QSKJCTl8H0
Assad Vala said 160 would have been a par score and they were always up against it in the field.
"What we spoke beforehand about was trying to get some early wickets and put them under pressure but we couldn't do that," he said.
"We bowled some really good overs early on but our last ball we couldn't close the overs down, which would have added a bit of pressure and taken their run-rate down, but we just didn't execute with our bowling today, which was not the standard we know we can.
"Our fielding wasn't up to standard as well."
It doesn't get any easier for the Barramundis who are back in action tomorrow against a Scotland team who upset Bangladesh by six runs.
The top two teams from their group will qualify for the World Cup main draw.
