An inspired bowling performance and calmness with the bat led Japan to a comfortable victory over Korea in the ICC Men’s T20WC East Asia Pacific – Sub-Regional ‘B’ 2024.

After Korea won the toss and chose to bat, it took until the fifth over for Japan to find their range.

The score of 22/0 became 25/5 as MVP Sabaorish Ravichandran (three for 11) Ibby Takahashi (two for 21) and then Charlie Hinze (two for nine) tore the Korean batting apart.

Ben Ito-Davis (two for 14) wrapped up the innings as Korea were dismissed for 78 off the last ball of the innings.

Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake (17 off 16 balls) got Japan off to a flier with boundaries off the first two balls of the chase, setting the tone for a comfortable victory.

Ibby Takahashi took up the aggressive approach with 22 from just ten balls, while captain Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming saw the team home with an untroubled 28* from 28 balls.

A win by seven wickets with 8.5 overs to spare gives Japan a healthy net run rate boost and puts Japan top of the table with two wins from two going into the rest day.

Japan will take on Indonesia in their third match of the tournament on Tuesday 1st October at 10:00. The match can be followed live , while the tournament will all be live streamed on icc.com/videos