{"id":706499,"date":"2026-05-31T15:13:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706499\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:13:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:13:47","slug":"chinese-womens-cricket-team-returns-to-asian-games-after-12-year-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706499\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese women’s cricket team returns to Asian Games after 12-year wait"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo:<\/p>\n

Photo: Courtesy of the General Administration of Sport<\/p>\n

The Chinese women’s national cricket team has qualified for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after finishing in the top three at the Asian Games Women’s Cricket Qualifier in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ending a 12-year wait to return to the tournament.<\/p>\n

The qualifications, held from May 23 to 31, 2026, featured six teams competing for three available spots at the Asian Games. Winners Thailand, runners-up Malaysia and China ultimately claimed the coveted berths.<\/p>\n

China’s qualification was confirmed after their third-place playoff win over Nepal on Sunday, after their dramatic campaign that included a narrow group-stage victory in the group stage and a heavy semifinal defeat in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

The Chinese team, current world No.43, opened their campaign with a hard-fought three-wicket win over world No.21 Indonesia. Chasing 83, they reached the target with just one ball to spare, finishing on 83\/7 after restricting Indonesia to 82\/9.<\/p>\n

However, momentum fluctuated in their second group match, where they fell to Nepal by 19 runs. Nepal posted 125\/5 before China were restricted to 106\/5 in reply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With one win and one defeat, China advanced from the group stage to the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

In the semifinals, China faced a dominant Thailand side, current world No.12, and were bowled out for 53, suffering an 83-run defeat as Thailand progressed comfortably to the final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The result forced China into a third-place playoff against Nepal on Sunday, with the final qualification spot at stake.<\/p>\n

In a tense and weather-disrupted decider, China held their nerve in a shortened seven-over contest. Nepal were restricted to 50\/5 before China chased a revised target under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, reaching victory to secure qualification.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Chinese women’s team’s qualification marks another step in the team’s progress on the international stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The side has previously competed in Asian Games editions in 2010 and 2014, finishing in the fourth place twice. The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will mark another opportunity for China to test itself against stronger Asian opponents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Courtesy of the General Administration of Sport The Chinese women’s national cricket team has qualified for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-706499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}