16th Asian Games Guangzhou (Women's Cricket): Japan beat Nepal by 10 wickets

On November 13th, Japan played Nepal in their first match in the Asian Games.

Japan won the toss and elected to field on a gorgeous afternoon at the newly built Guanggong Cricket Stadium in Guangzhou, China.

Batting first, Nepal got off to a good start, reaching 29 without loss. However, after Mariko Yamamoto took an excellent catch at mid off to take the first wicket, Japan fought back strongly taking regular wickets.

With disciplined bowling and energetic fielding, Japan created chances and took catches and run outs. After the allocated 20 overs, Japan restricted Nepal to only 62 runs.

Facing a modest target of 63, Japanese opening batsmen Ema Kuribayashi and Mariko Yamamoto started cautiously, but built momentum by running between the wickets extremely well.

Kuribayashi soon started to find the boundary and the run rate climbed without the loss of any wickets. The two steadily went about their task, and by the 12th over, the pair reached 60.

Yamamoto then hit the winning runs with a beautiful cover drive for 4 to give Japan its first win in the Asian Games by 10 wickets and 8.2 overs to spare.

Japan will play Bangladesh, who beat Hong Kong in their first match, on the Monday 15th November for a place in the Semi Finals.