The Men’s Japan National team kept their World Cup dreams alive in a de-facto EAP Regional Final against Samoa in the Super Six stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia & EAP Qualifier in Oman.

Samoa, who had already knocked out Papua New Guinea, won the toss and chose to bowl first under the lights in a huge game for both teams, knowing that a loss would be make it extremely difficult to progress to the World Cup.

Openers Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming and Abhishek Anand put on 69 from 54 balls before the captain was adjudged LBW for 35 from 31 balls at the end of the 9th over.

Anand went on to reach his fifty from 38 balls before falling four balls later for 55 which left Japan 117 for three with less than five overs to play.

Enter Ibrahim Takahashi, who displayed his power hitting in the win over Kuwait, and was instrumental again in propelling Japan to a defendable total. His 30 from 14 balls pumped momentum into the innings as four almighty sixes were sent into the night sky towards the nearby mountain ranges.

A final total of 162 for six felt par, and when Samoa made a fast start the Japan team was under intense pressure to keep their dream alive.

Sean Solia (41 from 23) and Darius Visser (27 from 29) were the dangermen for Samoa and as they put on 66 for the first wicket inside eight overs Japan were desperately looking for a breakthrough.

Declan Suzuki, who finished with three for 29, was the man to provide it, after finishing an over where Sabaorish Ravichandran had to leave the field with a cut hand, all adding to the drama.

Japan squeezed the innings to a point where Samoa needed 42 from the final 18 balls, but just as fans began to relax, momentum swung again. Saumani Tiai played the Takahashi role, smoking 34 from 17 balls, including 26 from the 18th over to put his team in charge again as only 16 were needed from the final two overs.

Suzuki bowled the 19th, conceding 7 runs and taking the crucial wicket of Ross Taylor, before Shoma Sugaya-Slater successfully defended nine from the final over, dismissing Tiai with fourth ball of the over and securing the win by just four runs.

Japan will now rest the next two days and be back in action on Wednesday 15th October at 3pm JST.