Cooks beat Indonesia

The Telecom Cook Islands national cricket squad registered their first win at the ICC East Asia Pacific Division 2 Trophy tournament in Samoa against Indonesia on Tuesday.

The match was played on day two of the tournament in scorching conditions at the Tuanaimato Oval.

After their earlier losses to Tonga, Samoa and the Philippines, the Cook Islands national squad were eager to take on an enthusiastic Indonesia side.

Winning the toss, captain and team wicket keeper Glen ‘Hori’ Miller decided to field first and restrict the Indonesian’s score with some tight bowling from the local boys.

Toala Teinaki snatched the first wicket with consistent line and length bowling collecting 3 wickets in the innings for 30 runs.

He was well supported by the Aitutaki express Daniel Tutai, who also came to the fore and took his best bowling figures of the tournament so far with 3 wickets for just 14 runs.

In the end, the Telecom Cook Islands squad restricted Indonesia to 110.

Chasing 111 to win, the Cooks lost early wickets, but Toala Teinaki and Tinorei Etita steadied the ship with a valuable partnership of 49 runs for the 3rd wicket.

Indonesia’s bowlers soon had both batsmen back in the tent and from there the game was heading for an exciting finish.

Enter Matavera’s Ray Roumanu, who steered the team home with some intelligent batting, including a 6 which cleared the road to take the victory in the 19th over.

Today, Thursday, the Cook Islands squad will face South Korea who will still be celebrating their fantastic upset win against Tonga.

The match is expected to be an exciting battle as both sides have nothing to lose.

The squad would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and support from back home and will be looking to make it 2 wins in the tournament.