Papua New Guinea Women’s squad (Lewas) remained unbeaten throughout the 2019 ICC Women’s East Asia-Pacific Qualifiers in Vanuatu, as they beat a spirited Samoan Women’s team on the final day of the competition to advance to the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifiers in Scotland later in 2019, and also for the 2021 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers to be held in 2020.
Host’s Vanuatu finished their best ever campaign in the EAP Women’s qualifiers, as they finished 3rd in the points table, notching up three wins, while Indonesia Women finished 4th in the tournament with two wins to their name. Japan Women registered their maiden T20I win during the competition, but faltered in the other matches to finish 5th, while Fiji Women remained win-less in the tournament.
It was a great tournament to showcase the growth of Women’s cricket in the East Asia-Pacific region as Vanuatu Cricket hosted a successful tournament at Port Vila. Regina Lili’i of Samoa finished as the tournament’s highest run-scorer (153 runs from 5 matches), while Kaia Arua (12 wickets from 5 matches) and Ravini Oa (11 wickets from 5 matches) of PNG were the highest wicket-takers in the competition.
2019 ICC East Asia-Pacific Women’s Qualifiers Points Table (Final)
| Team | Matches | Wins | Loss | Points | Net Run-Rate |
|
Papua New Guinea (Q) |
5 |
5 |
0 |
10 |
2.954 |
|
Samoa |
5 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
1.219 |
|
Vanuatu |
5 |
3 |
2 |
6 |
0.216 |
|
Indonesia |
5 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
0.14 |
|
Japan |
5 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
-1.296 |
|
Fiji |
5 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
-4.052 |
