Sri Lanka, Bangladesh advance as rain washes out cricket again

Rain continued to disrupt the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday, with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh advancing ‌to the men's cricket semi-finals after their quarter-final matches ​were abandoned ⁠without a ball being bowled.

Sri Lanka had ‌been scheduled to face ‌Nepal, while Bangladesh were set to take on Malaysia. However, a second consecutive day of no play at the Korogi ‌Sports Park, on the southern outskirts of Nagoya, meant the ⁠higher-ranked teams progressed automatically to the last four.

Jarrad Shearer, the games' sports director,could not hide his disappointment after organisers spent an entire year converting a baseball diamond into a cricket venue, only to see minimal action.

"Cricket, like baseball, you can't ​play it in the rain. A year of my ‌life on this, and it rains," Shearer said.

Sri Lanka will now take on defending champions India, while Bangladesh face Pakistan ⁠in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Bangladesh will be without Najmul Hossain Shanto, however, after the batter was ruled out of the tournament due ​to ‌a fever and infection.
Despite the washouts, Shearer remained optimistic ‌the weather would clear in time for the top-tier cricket.

"Come tomorrow morning it will be all hands on deck to dry up ‌the areas ‌that aren't under the covers. ⁠We've got some soppers, we've got some squeegees, ‌some big old brooms, we've got sponges.

"Plus, it's supposed to be sunny and 32 C (89.6 Fahrenheit), so ⁠with any luck we'll soak up as much ​water as we can in the morning and the sun will do its work in the afternoon."

Reuters