Asian Games Cricket Semi-Finals Set After Four Straight Washouts

The Asian Games cricket semi-finals were confirmed on Tuesday without a single ball bowled in the quarter-final round. Rain abandoned all four men's quarter-finals at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, on the southern edge of Nagoya. Competition regulations sent the higher seed through from each tie. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh advanced. Hong Kong, China, Afghanistan, Nepal and Malaysia are out.

The round produced four abandonments and no result. India and Pakistan went through on Monday. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh followed on Tuesday. Not one of the eight sides batted.

Four ties, no play

Pakistan were drawn against Hong Kong, China on Monday morning. India met Afghanistan later the same day. Neither match started. Tuesday brought the same outcome twice more. Nepal against Sri Lanka was called off, and so was Bangladesh against Malaysia.

Afghanistan's Mohammad Akram described the Monday wait. "We are here for the match but unfortunately it rained. The rain started yesterday, so hard luck for us," he said in comments carried by The Daily Star. "We saw the rain on our mobile phones. Everyone was sad."

Sports director Jarrad Shearer was blunter after Tuesday. "Cricket, like baseball, you can't play it in the rain. A year of my life on this, and it rains," he said in remarks reported by The Express Tribune.

The seeding rule that decided the round

The competition regulations settle an abandoned knockout tie on seeding. The higher-ranked side advances. There is no bowl-out and no shared result. None of the four quarter-finals was rescheduled, and the ICC confirmed that Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka went through on that basis.

Four teams were removed from a medal competition by weather rather than by a result. The seeding order was fixed before the round began. Rain then made it the only thing that counted. Every match in the round ended the way it began, unplayed.

Ten nations entered the men's tournament in Japan. Eight reached the quarter-finals. Four of those eight are now out on a seeding rule they could not influence. Each had played its way into the round.

Four sides out without facing a ball

All four had qualified for the knockout on the field. None was given the chance to defend that place on it. Associate and lower-ranked sides get few fixtures of this size. A Games quarter-final is one of them.

Malaysia and Nepal were the Tuesday casualties. Hong Kong, China and Afghanistan went the day before. Between them the four sides had come through a full group phase in Japan to reach the last eight. The reward was two days of waiting.

The eliminated group also loses the exposure that comes with a televised knockout at a multi-sport Games. That matters more to a developing board than a single result does. Squad travel, preparation camps and a qualification campaign all end without a scorecard.

Semi-final line-up and team news

Both semi-finals are scheduled for 1 October. The ICC lists them as follows.

• Pakistan v Bangladesh, 1 October, 9:00 local time
• India v Sri Lanka, 1 October, 14:00 local time

Bangladesh will be without Najmul Hossain Shanto. The Express Tribune reported that the batter is unavailable with a fever and an infection. Shearer expects better weather for the semi-finals, according to the same report.

The quarter-finals were staged in two slots on each of the two days, at 9:00 and 14:00 local time. The semi-finals keep the same pattern. Both matches share one ground, so a wet morning on 1 October would put the second semi-final at risk as well.

India's title defence

India are the defending champions. The ICC notes they won gold at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou three years ago. They now face Sri Lanka, a side that reached the last four the same way they did. That tie is the later of the two. It starts at 14:00 local time.

None of the four semi-finalists has played since the group stage. Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were all given a round off by the weather. Each now enters a medal match with days of inactivity behind it and no knockout cricket to draw on.