Samoa and Japan face a crunch encounter today at the East Asia Pacific Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier after Papua New Guinea continued their dominant start in Apia.
Samoa and Japan face a crunch encounter today at the East Asia Pacific Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier after Papua New Guinea continued their dominant start in Apia.
Papua New Guinea crushed Japan by five wickets on Saturday to make it two wins from two and take a big step towards advancing to the final global qualifying tournament.
Having notched an unbeaten half century in the opening win over Samoa, Lewas skipper Pauke Siaka this time impressed with the ball, claiming an extraordinary 3 for 8 from her ten overs as Japan were dismissed for a miserly 67 runs in the 44th over.
PNG women's cricket captain Pauke Siaka. Photo: ICC East Asia Pacific
PNG reached their target with more than 25 overs to spare but coach Rodney Maha said despite their strong start his team must not get complacent.
"I don't want to be too confident - that's what I told my players and I will probably tell them again tonight when we have a meeting. It's probably our batting that we need to sort out ourselves a bit more - we got a bit more wickets than we probably anticipated for that 67 runs with Japan but so far so good, I'll take the wins as they come, and I'm really happy for the girls."
Meanwhile Samoa warmed up for today's encounter with two Twenty20 wins against the Cricket Without Borders selection team.
