Telikom Titans became the first cricket team to win the inaugural SP Super Series Trophy after a seven wicket win over Trukai Invincible side at Amini Park in Port Moresby yesterday.
Twenty year old Assad Vala nick named the master blaster for his aggressiveness in hitting the ball made his third half century to lead the Titans to their first SP Super Series grand final win.
Titans 3/ 143 defeated Invincibles 10/141.
A very emotional Titans captain Mahuta Kivung who contributed 15 runs (not out) to help Vala reach Invincibles target of 141 runs said he did not expect the outcome to be like this ‘so easy’ but thanked his team mates for playing accordingly to their game plan.
“Obviously I did not think it would turn out like this, before coming into the match we promised ourselves to stick to our normal game and play our best cricket today (yesterday).
“Well the result spoke for itself, the boys really bowled well especially Jack (Ebani) and then Jimmy (Maha) and Assad got us off to a flying start which made it possible for us to reach the target before the first drink break,” Kivung said.
Kivung’s coach Eddie Tamarua was lost for words but described the win as a blessing ‘in disguise’.
“We had planned yesterday how we were going to go about playing against Trukai and it was no surprise when our bowlers bowled really well to restrict them (Invincibles) from scoring 200 plus runs.
“Once I saw the target was less than 150 I was really confident my top batsman would go out there and get us home in quick time and they did.
“I would especially like to thank Jack Lou for bowling really well today along with Moses Joseph and Assad, Jimmy, Mahuta and Kapena (Arua) for their enormous contribution,” a very happy Tamarua said.
Having won the toss and elected to bat Trukai Invincibles found themselves in ‘hot soup’ when Titans led by Jack Ebani and Joseph Moses bowled them all out for 141 after 37.5 overs.
Ebani (4/25) inflicted the greatest damage when the Hanuabada man took the valuable wickets of Invincibles opening batsmen Wala Vala (4) and Vagi Nou (3) and than later cleaned up Piki Ravusiro for a duck in his first ball and sent Mahuru Dai packing back to his Trukai tent for six runs.
And than Moses added icing on the cake when he also quickly cleaned up the middle of Invincibles skipper John Ovia (4), wicket keeper Arua Uda (6) and all rounder Seia Ovia (1) sending the Titans camp into a celebration mood.
The highlight of the Invincibles innings was young Lae based batsman Alfred Amini scoring his second half century (52) and Eava Lamond’s 19 runs adding some respect to the target.
In reply it took only 20 overs for Titans to claim their first ever SP Super Series title with Maha and Vala setting putting together a solid 40 run partnership to build up the foundation to victory.
Over at Colts grounds Brian Bell won the third place play off when Jamie Brazier became made the highest score of the series, 162, to lead his side to a 90 run victory over Steamship Hardware.
Brian Bell 8/394 defeated Steamships Hardware 10/304.
It was total carnage when Brazier along with Peter Moide 124 runs contributed to Brian Bell’s first innings target of 394 runs, the highest target ever set by a team in the super series.
In reply Steamships Hardware saved themselves from embarrassment when they were all bowled out for 304 for with their skipper Chris Amini making a valuable 79 runs.
Last Modified on 24/06/2008 14:54