The 19th Asian Games officially opened. The men's cricket
will begin on 27 September. Sri Lanka swept aside Thailand on Friday in a rain affected
women's cricket quarter-final at the Asian Games and Bangladesh joined them in
the last four after their clash with Hong Kong was washed out.
Sri Lanka easily chased down their target of 79 in 15 overs
of a rain-affected match at the Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng
Cricket Field in Hangzhou. Thailand had earlier fought back from 37- 6 to post
78-7 in their 15 overs, largely due to a battling 31 off 24 balls from Chanida
Sutthiruang batting at number seven. "Today we didn't get enough runs,"
said Chanida. "We thought that we could win the game, but we maybe needed
30 to 40 more runs. Even if we had 20 more runs, I think we could have defended
it." The Sri Lankans cruised past their target with 25 balls to spare,
Harshitha Samarawickrama hitting a six to end the contest as they finished on 84-2.
Sri Lanka will face Pakistan on Sunday in the second
semi-final with India playing Bangladesh, who progressed on higher world
ranking after their quarter-final with Hong Kong was washed out later on
Friday. "We want the gold medal," said Sri Lanka coach Rumesh Joseph
Ratnayake, whose team are in confident mood having just won a T20 series in
England 2-1 earlier this month. "We will take it match-by-match, we'll
break it into over-byover, even ball-by-ball.
"So winning those important moments will be our focus
and let's hope that can be executed as we want it to." The final will take
place on Monday. The 19th Asian Games officially open on Saturday. The men's
cricket will begin on 27 September.
