Japan vs India – Japan captain Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming looks back at the historic game

Japan captain Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming said “emotions [were] running pretty high in our group” after they had taken India “to the last ball of a game” in their first taste of men’s international cricket against a Full Member side. In a rain-delayed one-off T20I in Sano, with both innings reduced to five overs, Japan lost by just two runs in the chase after restricting India to 32 for 4.

“I’ve been saying to a few other guys that when [the game] gets that close, [the loss is] actually a little bit tougher to take and the emotions are running pretty high in our group,” Kadowaki-Fleming said. “But the fact that we were able to run the best team in the world, in my opinion, to the last ball of a game is pretty special.

“I’m sure there will be a couple of moments that replay through our minds on the long bus road now to nowhere but, yeah, it’s a feeling of pride at the moment.”

Kadowaki-Fleming was Japan’s highest scorer in the chase, making 12 off 12 from the top of the order before falling on the final delivery of the fourth over. It left Japan with nine runs needed off the final over.

“They’ve got some world-class spinners, Axar [Patel], Washington [Sundar] and Ravi Bishnoi bowling,” Kadowaki-Fleming said. “On our Sano wicket, we knew it was going to be an extreme challenge but at [a required run-rate of] six-and-a-half, your mind does sort of wander and think you get a couple out of the middle and you never know.”

Drama ensued in the final over, bowled by Axar, when the umpires overturned a wide. Axar’s previous delivery had been well down the leg side, and was called, but the next one, also missing leg but much closer to the batter who was attempting a reverse sweep, was first given wide and then overturned following queries from the India players. Had the wide call stayed, Japan’s requirement would have come down to six needed off four deliveries.

They were in the contest after an impressive performance from their spinners, especially Charlie Hara-Hinze, who took 2 for 17 from his two overs. The 17-year-old left-arm spinner played in the Under-19 World Cup last year, and has also played 38 T20Is for Japan.

“We’ve known [Hara-Hinze], he has been around our men’s squad for a couple of years,” Kadowaki-Fleming said. “He’s our 17-year-old prodigy. I was a little bit disappointed that the 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav [Sooryavanshi] wasn’t part of the [India] team sheet today.”

When the two had faced off at the Under-19 World Cup, Hara-Hinze had dismissed Sooryavanshi for a run-a-ball 23.

“Today was a really momentous occasion, in that it was the first time we were able to face a Full Member,” Kadowaki-Fleming said. “We’ve got around a 36-hour turnaround now [before the start of the Asian Games]… So we’re going to rest up tomorrow and we’ll prepare for that game, and obviously if we win one of our next two matches, we’ll have a chance to play another Full Member in the knockout. So that’s definitely the goal.”

Japan first play Afghanistan on September 24 in the Asian Games men’s opener, before taking on Nepal two days later, with both games taking place in Nisshin.

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