Papua New Guinea cricket captain Assad Vala has challenged the players to "be better" and learn from their disappointing debut at T20 World Cup.
PNG captain Assad Vala plays a shot during the men's Twenty20 World Cup. Photo: AFP
The Barramundis finished winless in the first round following defeats by Oman, Scotland and Bangladesh.
Batting proved their achilles heel, with a top-order collapse proving costly in all three games, while they only managed to bat out their full 20 over allotment once.
Assad Vala said the Barramundis lacked consistency throughout the tournament and were unable to put in a complete performance.
"We batsmen need to score runs and consistently and our bowlers just need to be executing their skills under pressure. Our fielding improved throughout the three games but I think we can be better as well," he said.
Vala scored 56 in the opening defeat by Oman but he said ultimately their top order did not score enough runs.
"I think our batting really let us down - no one put their hands up. Especially the senior players, myself and the senior players we just need to be better, try and lead from the front and score as many runs as we could, but we weren't good enough. We need to be better and score more runs to give ourselves a chance."
The Barramundis made a dream start to their final match against Bangladesh on Thursday, after Kabua Morea dismissed Mohammad Naim for a duck with the second ball of the match.
Morea and Vala finished with identical figures of 2 for 26 from four overs, as Bangladesh posted 181 for 7 from their 20 overs.
But PNG's batting woes returned as the Barramundis slumped to 14 for 4 inside five overs, with Lega Siaka, Vala, Charles Amini and Sese Bau all departing for single figures.
"We went in believing that we could win the match if we had a good start but I think what's been costing us in batting has been our starts and we haven't got good starts," Vala explained.
"We have been losing wickets early on. The power play, I think if you lose three or four it's really hard to come back from there and that was it when we lost four or five in the power play."
Papua New Guinea's wicketkeeper Kiplin Doriga plays a shot during the ICC men's Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea. Photo: AFP
Wicketkeeper-batsmen Kiplin Doriga offered some much-needed resistance down the order, blasting 46 not out from 34 balls, including two sixes, but it wasn't enough as the Barramundis were bowled out for 97 in the final over.
Vala said they were too inconsistent.
"I think when we don't start well we do well in the middle and we do well at the death. If we do start well then we don't do well at something - I think that we haven't been playing a really complete match at the moment," he said.
"Today we started really well against a really good batting unit - 1 for 40-something (but then we conceded) 60 runs I think in the last four or five overs, we just couldn't execute our skills under pressure. When our bowlers were under pressure, we just couldn't execute."
Kabua Morea strikes in the first over
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) October 21, 2021
Mohammad Naim attempts a big one, but finds the fielder to walk back to the pavilion for a duck!#T20WorldCup | #BANvPNG | https://t.co/SPogxPtkNE pic.twitter.com/6OsKqyG8MK
One bright spot was the performance of Barramundis seamer Kabua Morea, who has made his international debut across all three formats during the past six weeks.
The 28-year-old left armer bagged impressive figures of 4 for 31 against Scotland and has already captured 11 wickets in four one-day internationals.
"Kabua was outstanding throughout the three games," Vala said.
"On his first tour representing the country I think he's been really good and I'm really happy for him for the work he has put in and I think credit to him."
Despite a disappointing World Cup debut overall, Vala believes the Barramundis will be better for the experience.
"We set ourselves goals and we wanted to win games. That's why we're here - we're not here just to make up the numbers - and we were below our best in all three games, which is disappointing," he said.
"I'm proud of the effort the boys have given but I think there is still more to come from us. I think the best is yet to come. We have learned a lot from this tournament. Hopefully we can keep improving."
