Papua New Guinea have beaten Hong Kong by 69 runs to complete a clean sweep of the Twenty20 cricket tri-series in Port Moresby.
The Barramundis made 161 for 9 batting first in the grand final at Amini Park, with captain Assad Vala top-scoring with 37 at the top of the order.
PNG Barramundis captain Assad Vala. Photo: Cricket PNG
The visitors run-chase began in spectacular fashion as they blasted 29 runs from the first two overs.
However Nizakat Khan's dismissal for 28 from 11 balls triggered a collapse as Hong Kong slumped to 44 for 4 and were eventually all out for 92 in the 17th over.
Damien Ravu and Chad Soper both nabbed three wickets and Barramundis head coach Joe Dawes was full of praise for his squad's composure and execution under pressure.
"The wicket was a little bit slower today so to battle away to 160-odd we were happy with that and to field and bowl the way we did after the first two overs (I was) extremely happy," he said.
"The boys were very calm and it was nice to see them get some rewards for the hard work they put in."
Papua New Guinea celebrate their triumph in the T20 tri-series. Photo: Cricket PNG
The Barramundis went unbeaten through the week, winning three straight against Hong Kong and two against the Cricket PNG Academy, and Joe Dawes said they're building momentum.
"We've strung together 11 wins now in Twenty20 in a row which we're happy about - we've worked really hard on that part of our game," he said.
"Just seeing guys grow into the roles that we've talked about, embracing that and starting to think about what they need to do when they get out in the middle, whether it be with the bat or the ball.
"We've seen, I think, a maturing of these young guys. There's still some way to go but I'm really happy with how they're progressing and the pleasing thing for me about this week is there wasn't just one or two guys scoring all the runs - it got shared around.
"And some pretty good efforts, in particular young Lega (Siaka), CJ (Amini) and Sese Bau contributing during the week which in Fiji they probably didn't - it was more Tony (Ura) and Assad Vala scoring all the runs there so to get our top five firing is excellent and to see our fielding really excelling it's quite pleasing."
PNG and Hong Kong will now play three 50 over matches on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
