Asian Games: India men qualify for cricket SF after rain abandons Afghanistan quarterfinal

Nisshin: Rain washed out the second quarterfinal between India and Afghanistan at the Karogi Sports Park here on Monday, with India advancing to the Asian Games semifinals as the higher-ranked team.

It mirrored the outcome of the first quarterfinal between Pakistan and Hong Kong, China, which was also abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain as the Nisshin weather played spoilsport with Pakistan qualifying for the semis.

It had rained on the eve of the quarterfinal too, and the heavens opened up once again on the match day too. The Pakistan-Hong Kong, China game was scheduled to start at 5:30 AM IST, but it was abandoned without a toss due to rain.

The India-Afghanistan clash was slated to be held at 10:30 AM IST with the toss at 10 AM IST, but the relentless rain since morning washed that game out too.

India and Pakistan were the higher-ranked teams in the ICC rankings against their respective opponents and made it to the next stage.

India are ranked No.1 in the world, while Afghanistan are the 10th-ranked side. Pakistan are placed sixth in the team rankings, while Hong Kong, China are ranked 24th.

India T20I captain Shreyas Iyer was also asked about the rain threat, but he kept his focus largely on the game ahead of the quarterfinal. "Yes, rain is there, but that is the reason we can't give up because we have decided that we are a bunch of professionals and all these hurdles will keep coming. We have to be prepared mentally irrespective of whatever the situation is going to be.

"So a decent warm-up or a little knocking practice we got today, and tomorrow we will try to adapt to the wicket. We will see how the weather is here tomorrow, but that is secondary. The primary importance is to come and play the match," Shreyas told reporters in a press conference on Sunday.

India will now meet the winner of the third quarterfinal between Sri Lanka and Nepal in the semifinal, while Pakistan will face the winner from the fourth quarterfinal between Bangladesh and Malaysia.

The QFs are scheduled to take place on Tuesday, while the semifinals will be held on Thursday.

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