ICC East Asia-Pacific men’s team have started their campaign in the 2018 Australian Country Championships on a winning note as they defeated Queensland Country in the 1st match of the group phase. The match was played in T20 format.
ICC EAP captain Patrick Matautaava from Vanuatu won the toss and invited Queensland to bat first and his decision was backed up by the bowlers as they restricted their opponents to 124/6 in 20 overs. Sam Lowry (43 off 39) was the top-scorer for Queensland as other batsmen got brief starts but could not convert them into bigger innings.
Nalin Nipiko (2/23 off 4), Damien Ravu (2/21 off 4), Jelany Chilia (1/11 off 4) and Hiri Hiri (1/22 off 4) gave away nothing to the Queensland batters as they bowled with immaculate line and lengths to restrict run-scoring for the major part of the innings.
ICC EAP team lost Kipling Doriga (12 off 16) and Patrick Matautaava without scoring of the bowling of Christopher Stanger, leaving them at a spot of bother at 34/2. Nalin Nipiko (17 off 16) provided good support to Nalisa Williamsing before he got out to Jason Seng with the score at 62/3 in the 11th over.
EAP team lost 3 more wickets en-route to victory which was set up by Nalisa Williamsing (51 off 42) and a crucial knock by Damien Ravu (20 n.o off 21) during the final overs to take the team score to 127/6 in 18.5 overs to win the match by 4 wickets.
Christopher Stanger (2/19 off 3), Jason Seng (2/23 off 3.5) and Michael Salerno (1/18 off 4) were the pick of the bowlers for Queensland Country.
