Tony Munro

Papua New Guinea demonstrated why they are the favourite for the East Asia-Pacific Trophy with crushing ten-wicket wins in both its Twenty20 matches on day one of the tournament in Apia, Samoa on Thursday.

Fielding a new look combination, PNG routed Japan for 20 in their morning match, needing just 2.5 overs to seal the win. They then skittled the Cook Islands for 42, requiring only 4.2 overs to finish the day unbeaten.

PNG fast bowler Willie Gavera capitalised on early wickets from captain Chris Amini to finish the Japan innings, collecting a haul of 4 for 3 from four overs. Japan allrounder, Cheema Razaq, who bats right-handed and bowls left-handed, was his team's top scorer with 7.

Fiji was the other unbeaten team, comfortably beating Vanuatu and Samoa. The bulk of the Vanuatu team had just come from the ICC Under 19 World Cup Qualifiers in Canada.

The match featured some fierce six-hitting, especially from Fiji's veteran opener Joji Bulabalavu, who smashed eight sixes and five fours.

Left-hand Vanuatu opener Damian Smith retaliated, bashing three sixes and five fours on his way to 56 before he was run-out. Fiji won by 43 runs.

Japan rebounded in their afternoon game to beat Tonga by 3 wickets.