Barra’s lose to Afghanistan

By PATRICIA KEAMO
PAPUA New Guinea Barramundis head coach Tatenda Taibu says batting remains the key focus and area for improvement for the team following their seven-wicket loss to Afghanistan in Friday’s Twenty-20 World Cup Group C fixture.
Taibu told The National that although they had not reached their goal of winning a match in their second World Cup appearance, the Barramundis were looking forward to finishing off their last group match against New Zealand today before returning home.
“Our goal at the beginning of the tournament was to win at least two games, we have not managed to do that so far. Getting a win under our belt would have made the flight back home sweeter,” Taibu said.
“Our fielding and bowling have always been good with the team although we had a few missed catches in the first couple of games but bowling has been outstanding.
“It’s the batting that has been a bit of a problem that’s due to a lot of things, partly it’s how the wickets are played so far. All batters are struggling with that, no one has scored a 100 so far, there have been a couple of players who have taken a five-wicket haul but we haven’t had anyone scoring big. We are no exceptions, other batters are also struggling so a lot of games have been low scoring.”
Taibu said another factor was luck with the Barras losing tosses which could have helped them decide how they strategise in bowling or batting first. As in the first two games, Friday’s clash with Afghanistan saw the Barras sent into bat first and by the power player they had lost five wickets for just 30 runs with the middle and lower order players forced to build an innings and reach a par or defendable score.
“It was good to see the players fight back from that (30/5) to end up with 95 which was not enough, probably 30 runs short of a par score but it was good to see the effort from them with that comeback from the position that we were in,” Taibu said.
“We had a bit of a chance given the first two wickets early but after the third wicket we couldn’t continue getting more wickets because I don’t think we bowled straight enough hitting a good length which is something we will continue to work on.
“It’s a matter of making sure we build from a good start or if we can get to a position where we get the game in our hands.”