The Eastern Waves won the first ever match in the Women’s Japan Premier League thanks to two outstanding all-round performances from their overseas stars. 

Brought to raise the standard, Jess Adams from Melbourne and Hong Kong Captain Kary Chan certainly did that, with both bat and ball. 

The Eagles had started the contest brighter after winning the toss and restricting the Waves to 39 for three after eight overs when Erika Toguchi-Quinn clean bowled the dangerous Haruna Iwasaki. At that stage a total in excess of a hundred looked a long way off. 

However, Chan and Adams combined for a 52-run partnership from 39 balls to change the complexion of the match. Chan struck six boundaries and an imperious straight six in an excellent head-to-head battle with South African Gandhi Jafta, who had earlier removed Akari Nishimura for just 9. 

Chan brought up her half-century with a fortuitous boundary off Emmerson Filsell, who bowled with pace and venom in her second spell, and who bounced back the next ball as she sneaked one through to bring the Eagles back into the contest at 89 for four with five overs to go. 

Adams had largely played a support role to that point but continued to rotate strike and hit the odd boundary to lead her side to 116 for five at the close of the innings, finishing 24 not out with four boundaries.  

The Waves then showed what they could do with ball in hand as their four front line bowlers made life extremely tough for the Eagles batters. 

Jafta looked like she held the key but Kary Chan won that battle thanks to a stunning over the shoulder diving catch from Ahilya Chandel as Chan finished with two for 10 from her four overs. 

Adams may have played a support role with the bat, but was almost unplayable with the ball at times, backing up an excellent opening spell from Kurumi Ota who knocked over Hinase Goto to get things rolling for the Waves. 

Bowling full and extracting plenty of movement from the pitch, Adams dismissed Erika Oda and Shimako Kato in her first spell before administering the last rights with two more wickets in the final over, including with the last ball as Lemon Cheung was caught for a defiant 24; the Eagles top score. 

The Waves bowling unit looked the sharper of the two and ultimately kept the Eagles to 84 for eight to earn a win by 32 runs, Adams named the MVP after her four for 13 and 24* helped her team take a 1-0 lead in the series.

The second match will start at 10am local time and can be watched with both English and Japanese commentary on the JCA YouTube Channel. 

Match Summary

Eastern Waves: 116/5 (Chan 53, Adams 24*), beat Western Eagles 84/8 (Cheung 24, Adams 4/13) by 32 runs.