Tubou win Under-19 Inter-District Cricket Tournament

The Tubou winning team with their U19 cricket tournament trophy © ICC

In a fantastic finish to the week long Under 19 Cricket Competition, the finals were played last Friday, were the final four came down to Lautoka, Moce, Nadi and Tubou. After 4 days of matches Suva 1, Suva 2, Nasinu and Tailevu were all knocked out in the group stages. Tubou finished with 3 wins from as many matches whilst Moce, Lautoka and Nadi all finished with 2 wins from 3 games.

In the 1st Semi Final, Moce batted first and looked to be on the ropes at 4 for 61, before a 99 run partnership of 60 balls between Tagilala Rakuita (62 runs) and Sekope Biauniceva (34 runs) took Moce to a total of 172 runs. Best Bowling for Lautoka was Safa who took 3 wickets for 18 runs.

In reply Lautoka were never in the hunt as they collapsed to be 3 wickets for 9 runs, and ended up being all out for 63 runs. Summit Kumar top scored for Lautoka with 19 runs and Best bowling for Moce was Tagilala Rakuita who took 2 wickets for 14 runs.

In the Second Semi Final Tubou batted first and looked to be in trouble at 2 wickets for 20 runs, before a steady middle order took the total to 4 for 147, with Jale Ataogo making 42 runs and Joni Bapist scoring 45 runs.

In reply Nadi got off to a terrible start, at one stage being 3 wickets down for 10 runs, before Sekove Ravoka (25 runs) and Sekove Vouvou (35 runs) took the total to 7 for 110. With a superb 27 runs from number 10 Vilikesa Driu, Nadi needed 2 runs to draw and 3 to win in the final over with no wickets in hand. With four dot balls and a single of the first five balls, Nadi needed 2 to win of the last ball. Alivereti Driu hit the ball high and long and looked to be going for 6 before a spectacular catch by Jale Ataogo, took Tubou into the final by the barest of margins.

After a thrilling Semi Final the stage was set for something special in the Final and it did not dissapoint.

Tubou batted first and Moce bowled brilliantly to have Tubou all out for 63 runs. Best bowlers for Moce being Tagilala Rakuita taking 2 wickets for 12 runs (6 overs) and Sekope Biauniceva taking 3 wickets for 19 runs (6 overs). What really highlighted the superb job the Moce bowlers did, is that leading into the final Tubou were the highest scoring team in the 4 previous games and were coming of a semi Final match against Nadi where they scored 4 for 147.

In reply Moce were struggling at 3 for 16 runs, but in a small recovery, looked to be home at 51 runs with 3 wickets in hand. But when Jale Ataogo took 3 wickets in his last over, Tubou had scored a fantastic victory to be the Innagural winners of the Peter Knight Trophy, in what Cricket Fiji hopes will be a annual competition.

Although the first session on Moday was washed out, it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the teams and there were some fantastic signs for Cricket in Fiji. Particularly from the teams from the outer islands, Moce and Tubou (Lakeba) who showed that they are still a very strong Cricketing region and will continue to produce a large percentage of the Fiji National team Representatives.

For any further information on this or other Cricket Related matters please don't hesitate to contact the Cricket Fiji office on the below mentioned details.