Asian Games: Pakistan advance to semis after persistent rain washes out QF against Hong Kong
Nisshin, Sep 28 (IANS) Pakistan have advanced to the Asian Games semifinal without taking the field in their men’s cricket quarterfinal match against Hong Kong as relentless rain played spoilsport, and the match has been abandoned without a ball being bowled here at the Korogi Sports Park on Monday.
With the washout, Pakistan progressed to the semi-finals by virtue of their higher ICC T20I ranking, while Hong Kong bowed out without getting an opportunity to take the field.
Pakistan will next take on the winners of Tuesday’s quarterfinal between Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Pakistan and Hong Kong had met twice in this format, in the 2022 Asia Cup and 2023 Asian Games, with Pakistan winning both.
Hong Kong reached the quarter-finals after winning one of their two group games. Pakistan, meanwhile, came straight in the quarter-finals after receiving the bye in the first and were the strong favourites with the new-look side under a new captain Sahibzada Farhan.
As per the format, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh got a first round bye and are straight to the quarter-final phase. The six lowest-seeded teams were split into two groups of three, with the top two teams in each progressing to the knockout stages.
In the second quarterfinal of the day, India and Afghanistan will lock horns for a place in the semifinals. However, weather forecasts predict showers .
As per AccuWeather, there are 69% chances of precipitation at 8 AM local time, which goes to 70% at 9 AM, the scheduled start of the first QF. The rain chances stay at 49% at 10 AM (local), 75% at 11 AM and 71% at 12 noon.
The precipitation chances slip to 40% at 1 PM (local), the scheduled time for the India-Afghanistan toss, while they remain at 34% at 2 PM and 40% at 3 PM before a marginal increase to 58% at 4 PM local. They remain at 49% at 5 PM, 60% at 6 PM and 49% at 7 PM local time.
In case the heavens open and wash the match out, India will be declared the winner against Afghanistan, as they are the higher-ranked T20I teams than their opponents.
As per ICC rankings, India are No.1 in T20Is, while Afghanistan are ranked 10th.
In 2023 Hangzhou, India had claimed gold by virtue of their higher seeding than gold medal match adversaries Afghanistan, after the final was washed out by rain.
–IANS
bc/
