India reached Nisshin’s Korogi Sports Park on Monday to face Afghanistan in a men’s quarterfinal in Asian Games, but the precipitation cancelled the match.
It was to be a match from 10:30 AM IST, with the toss to come at 10 AM. But the rain never let up during the morning so the players could not play in the field. After the umpires eventually ditched the game, India were advanced due to their higher ICC T20I rank.
The two teams that opened the pressures both faced a washout in the first quarterfinal of the day, which was between Pakistan and Hong Kong, China. That one was meant to be played at 5:30 AM IST but was dropped due to heavy rain. Based on the higher ranking, Pakistan qualified itself to the semi-finals.
India got into the quarter-final as the Top 1 in the T20I ranking chart and Afghanistan were ranked 10th in the T20I table. Both the high scoring teams (Pakistan 6th, Hong Kong, China 24th) had the advantage when the matches were abandoned.
The weather had already caused chaos in Nisshin where preparation was impeded by rain, and play was uncertain due to the rain affecting some of the training sessions. India skipper Shreyas Iyer had already recognized the challenge, but stated that the team had to be mentally tough to face any situation before the game.
Since the quarter finished at the status quo, with India still facing Sri Lanka in the semifinal of Asian Games, the Sri Lanka-Nepal quarter must still be played out. The other semi-final will be between the winner of Bangladesh vs Malaysia against Pakistan. The two semifinals will each be voted the same day, on October 1.