Asian Games: India to face Afghanistan in quarter-finals in repeat of the last final

With four teams making their way out of the short group-stage phase of the men's Asian Games cricket competition, the line-ups for the quarter-finals, where the four top-seeded teams - Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - had automatically qualified, have been identified.

• 1st quarter-final: Hong Kong vs Pakistan on September 28
• 2nd quarter-final: Afghanistan vs India on September 28
• 3rd quarter-final: Nepal vs Sri Lanka on September 29
• 4th quarter-final: Bangladesh vs Malaysia on September 29

Nepal and Afghanistan qualified for the quarter-finals from Group A, eliminating hosts Japan, while Malaysia and Hong went through from Group B, with Oman crashing out.

Unfortunately, though, Saturday's rain, which prevented the Japan vs Nepal match from completing and didn't allow a single ball to be bowled in the Malaysia vs Oman contest, is expected to be around on the days of the quarter-finals too. The Accuweather forecast for Monday mentions a 91% chance of rain in the daytime (when the matches are played) and a 22% chance of thunderstorms. For Tuesday, the forecast is similar: 89% chance of rain and 18% chance of thundershowers.

Cricinfo understands that if a knockout game is called off without a result, the higher-seeded team - based on ICC's official T20I rankings - will be declared the game's winners.

As things stand, the weather is expected to be friendlier for cricket on the day of the semi-finals (Thursday) and the day of the medal playoffs (Saturday).

India are the defending champions of the Asian Games, having beaten Afghanistan in the gold-medal game in Hangzhou back in October 2023, with Bangladesh the bronze medallists after they beat Pakistan in the third-place playoff.