Japan won the East Asia-Pacific Women's Championship to advance to next year's global qualifying event in Port Vila yesterday.
Japan proved too strong in a match reduced to 14 overs a side restricting PNG to 58-4 then chasing down the runs in 11 overs with eight wickets in hand.
Samoa finished third, after a comfortable eight wicket win over hosts Vanuatu in the bronze playoff, but their coach Maia Lewis still believes her team should have made the final.
"I think on paper we had a good enough team to do so, we just didn't perform on the day of the semi final and didn't get enough runs. 43 runs isn't enough to defend in a Twenty20 game and we fought pretty hard to try and defend it, and it took them 14 overs to get it, just disappointing effort in the semi final and considering we got so close in the round robin against PNG and Japan as well with only ten and nine runs short so disappointed but obviously happy to finish on a high."
Maia Lewis.
Japan now moves onto the next stage of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Bangladesh.
