THE Vanuatu cricket team will need to step up on its next match against Samoa after losing their second consecutive game against Papua New Guinea yesterday in the 2020 ICC World T20 Qualifier at the Albert Park in Suva.
Fiji had earlier defeated Vanuatu by three wickets. Now the pre-tournament favourites Vanuatu is winless, after the second round.
Vanuatu team captain Andrew Mansale said they were not expecting the results to go against them.
He said they would continue to strive for a better performance in their next game.
“It was a disappointing result today (yesterday). We did not expect this to happen since we’ve been preparing for this tournament for a while,” Mansale said.
“The first upset was against Fiji on Saturday and we were confident that we were going to win that match. It was unfortunate. “This is not the end of the road since we have three more matches to play and Samoa lost to Fiji, so that gives us an opportunity to better our performance.”
Vanuatu was rated the favourite of the competition after its successful runs over the years against Pacific rivals. “I have a good team and we have bonded well during training sessions.
I believe there is still hope and we will lift our standard with only three games to go.
“We thought we were going to run over Fiji and PNG like we used to do, but unfortunately it didn’t turn out the way we expected.”
The Vanuatu side will play Samoa tomorrow in the third round while Fiji meets Papua New Guinea for the second time.
