Japan Into Final After Defeating Philippines
- 2025-06-07
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- National Team (Women)
The Women’s Japan National Team secured a place in the final of the Sano City International Trophy on Sunday by recording a big win over the Philippines.
In the first contest between the two sides, it was the Philippines who were on top for much of the first half of the game as the reduced the hosts to 44 for seven in the 14th over.
Leg-spinner JK Andreano was particularly impressive as she conceded just a single run from her four overs, and dismissed key batters Ayaka Kato-Stafford and captain Mai Yanagida.
Ayumi Fujikawa was held things together in the final overs of the innings, her 16* from 22 balls helping Japan finish on 83 for eight from their 20 overs and giving them something to defend.
An extra complication was that Japan knew they needed to dismiss Philippines for 54 or less to improve their net run rate by enough to leapfrog China on the points table and book a place in the Final.
While the Philippines batters were circumspect to begin with, reaching the ten over mark at 21 for two, things unravelled spectacularly after the drinks break.
Fujikawa was prominent again, taking three wickets in the 11th over on her way to figures of four wickets for just four runs.
More chaos followed in the 12th over as Erika Toguchi-Quinn struck with the second ball of the over, and then followed it up with a hat-trick from the final three balls as she collected four wickets for just five runs.
A run out completed the innings in the following over, rounding off a collapse of eight wickets for the cost of three runs in 17 balls.
After Hong Kong completed a routine win over Mongolia in the afternoon the final was confirmed as Japan vs Hong Kong at 14:30 while China will take on Philippines in the 3rd place play off. The loser of that match will have an additional match in the afternoon to play off against Mongolia for 4th place.
HIGHLIGHTS
The full match schedule is as follows:
- 3rd June (Tuesday) 09:30 – Japan vs Mongolia (Match Abandoned)
- 3rd June (Tuesday) 14:30 – China vs Hong Kong (Match Abandoned)
- 4th June (Wednesday) 09:30 – Japan vs Hong Kong (Hong Kong won by 19 runs)
- 4th June (Wednesday) 14:30 – Philippines vs China (China won by 5 wickets)
- 5th June (Thursday) 09:30 – Philippines vs Hong Kong (Match Abandoned)
- 5th June (Thursday 14:30 – China vs Mongolia (China won by 7 wickets)
- 6th June (Friday) 09:30 – Japan vs China (Japan won by 24 runs)
- 6th June (Friday) 14:30 – Mongolia vs Philippines (Philippines won by 118 runs)
- 7th June (Saturday) 09:30 – Japan vs Philippines (Japan won by 59 runs)
- 7th June (Saturday) 14:30 – Hong Kong vs Mongolia (Hong Kong won by 7 wickets)
- 8th June (Sunday) 09:30 – 3rd Place Playoff
- 8th June (Sunday) 14:30 – Final
Venue: Sano International Cricket Ground
Address: 300-1 Tochimoto-cho, Sano City, Tochigi 327-0312, Japan
Admission: Free for all matches
All matches will be live streamed on the JCA YouTube Channel
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