A man wearing a rain jacket stands in front of a booth promoting the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture on September 16, 2026. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan / AFP)
Nagoya, Japan: China's women returned to Asian Games cricket for the first time in 12 years on Thursday -- only to be knocked out without a ball being bowled two days before the opening ceremony.
On a seemingly perfect day for T20 cricket under blue skies and sunshine at the Korogi Athletic Park in Nagoya, a sodden outfield caused by days of rain prevented any play from taking place in China's morning quarter-final against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh went through to the semi-finals by virtue of being the higher ranked side under Asian Games competition rules.
There they will meet Pakistan, whose last-eight match against Thailand later in the day was reduced to 11 overs per side after the start was delayed by 90 minutes as groundstaff worked to dry the outfield.
Thailand, anchored by wicketkeeper Nannapat Koncharoenkai's 49, posted a competitive 91-4 in their 11 overs.
Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals before avoiding an upset by reaching 92-7 with two balls to go.
Record rainfall a week ago caused flooding in Nagoya and caused some Asian Games athletes to be evacuated from their accommodation.
Parts of the Korogi Park outfield had still clearly not recovered from the deluge in time to stage both Thursday's matches.
"We knew it was going to be tough to get a game given the weather in the last week here and all the challenges there have been," said China's Australian coach Alan Newington.
"We're grateful to the ground staff for trying their best, but we thought it was going to be tough to get a game.
"But we're very disappointed. We were hoping the world could see the China women play for the first time in a big tournament. But we'll reset and we'll try again."
The Nagoya-Aichi Games officially begin with an opening ceremony on Saturday.
Clear skies are forecast for Friday's remaining quarter-finals == Sri Lanka v Malaysia and hosts Japan v India.
But the weather forecast is poor for Sunday and Tuesday when the semi-finals and medal finals are due to take place, with a typhoon threatening to pass close by.
The men's cricket competition begins with a preliminary round from next Thursday before heavyweights India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh enter the fray at the quarter-final stage.
India have a star-studded squad featuring many of the players that won the T20 World Cup earlier this year, plus 15-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
