JONE Batinibula put a man of the match performance to steer Fiji to a 10 wickets victory over Indonesia in their opening game of the Pepsi ICC East Asia Pacific T20 Cricket Senior men's tournament at Auckland, New Zealand yesterday.
Batinibula was the best Fijian bowler taking four wickets and seven runs while Samuela Dranivudi had two wickets and nine runs.
The Joeli Mateyawa coached-national side batted first.
However, the strong performance of the Fijian bowlers, in particular Batinibula was too much to contain.
Fiji made 47 runs without the loss of a wicket. Sekove Ravoka and Colin Rika had 28 and 10 runs not out.
Inspirational skipper Joe Rika said Fiji would be a force to reckon at the championship.
"This is a great start to the tournament and I am sure the other teams will be looking at Fiji and saying that we mean business," he said in a press statement.
"We need to make sure that we do not get carried away as this is just the first game of the tournament but we can draw allot of confidence from this game."
Mateyawa was equally pleased with his players.
"We are heading in the right direction to our goal which is to win this tournament.
"We will take one game at a time and ensure that we are well prepared for each game," he said.
Fiji plays Japan and Cook Islands in today's games.
The winner of this tournament will qualify for the World Cup qualifier in Dubai later this year.