Asian Games: Japan knocked out after rain washes out steep chase against Nepal

It was always going to be a steep chase for Japan, topping Nepal's 149 in just 15 overs, but they will never know if they had it in them to pull it off, or get close, with rain washing out the chase in its entirety in their Asian Games contest in Nisshin on Saturday.

The result meant Nepal topped Group A in the first round of the men's competition, while Japan were knocked out, with Afghanistan the second team from the group to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Japan asked Nepal to bat and after rain interruptions before and during (in the fifth over) the innings, Nepal put up a strong 149 for 4, with Sundeep Jora and Lokesh Bam hitting unbeaten half-centuries. It was a little stop-start around them, with Kushal Bhurtel, Kushal Malla and Gulsan Jha falling for single-digit scores and only Aasif Sheikh batting with any enterprise in scoring a 15-ball 21.

Nepal might have been happy with where they were, though, with Jora combining with Sheikh for 55 runs for the second wicket and the scorecard reading 84 for 4 at the end of the tenth over with five overs to go. But after Bam joined Jora, the game seemed to go away from Japan quite quickly. Bam hit 52 not out in just 22 balls, with one four and six sixes, and Jora continued the work he had been doing since walking out at No. 3 in the third over, finishing with an unbeaten 57 in 32 balls, with five fours and three sixes.

Japan, who had done well with the ball against Afghanistan in their opening game - and against India in the one-off T20I prior to that - but fallen short with the bat, exit the event having impressed in patches.