New Delhi [India], May 31 : Thailand and Malaysia, who faced off in the final of the women's cricket qualifying tournament for the 2026 Asian Games, have secured their spots in the main event, along with China, which finished third on Sunday.
The Asian Games are scheduled to take place in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, Japan, in September and October.
The qualifiers, held in Kuala Lumpur from May 26 to May 31, saw Thailand top Group A with victories over Malaysia and Hong Kong. Malaysia then defeated Hong Kong to reach the semi-finals, joining Thailand, along with Group B leaders Nepal and runners-up China. In the semis, Thailand beat China by 83 runs after bowling them out for just 53, while Malaysia chased down Nepal's 126 for 6 with two wickets and eight balls remaining.
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With the finalists already guaranteed Asian Games qualification, the third-place match was the main contest left, where China defeated Nepal in a rain-affected game by five wickets under the DLS method. Later, Thailand bowled Malaysia out for 54 to secure a nine-wicket win in the final.
Thailand remains one of the top-ranked Associate teams in women's cricket and previously participated in the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia after qualifying in 2019. In the current ICC T20I rankings, Thailand is 12th, Malaysia 28th, and China 42nd.
At the Asian Games, the women's cricket competition will feature eight teams in the T20 format. Four Full Members from the region--Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka--qualify automatically, along with host nation Japan.
The men's qualifying tournament is still ongoing. In addition to host Japan, the five regional Full Members--Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka--have qualified directly, with four more teams to emerge from the qualifiers, which include Nepal, China, Malaysia, Qatar, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Oman, and Singapore.