Japan’s hopes of advancing to the quarterfinal were dealt a blow after the side succumbed to a 48-run loss against Afghanistan in its men’s cricket Group A fixture at the Asian Games 2026 on Thursday.
In order to qualify, Japan will need to defeat Nepal, which is ranked 16th in T20Is, in its final group stage fixture on September 26, Saturday, and hope other results go its way.
But should Nepal defeat Afghanistan by some miracle, then Kendal Kadowaki-Fleming’s side will all but be out of contention.
Japan entered the game high on confidence after nearly securing an upset win over India in the one-off T20I but against Afghanistan in a full 20-over game, the difference in quality between the two sides was exposed.
After winning the toss and choosing to field first, Japan did well to restrict Afghanistan to 129/6. Shoma Sugaya-Slater and Ibrahim Takahashi were the standout performers with the ball, picking up two wickets each.
In the second innings, Japan lost opener Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake for a duck before his opening partner Reo Sakurano-Thomas fell for 23 off 24 balls.
That set the precedent for what followed as the rest of the Japan batting unit failed to get going, and were dismissed for low scorers.
Benjamin Ito-Davis (17 off 8 balls) was the only batter who showed intent but was dismissed by Nangeyalia Kharote before he could convert his brisk start into a big score.
Karote (3/19) along with Arab Gul (4/8) caused most of the damage as Afghanistan secured a comfortable win to move one step closer to the quarterfinal.
Published on Sep 24, 2026
