Malaysia crush China in historic cricket clash

Malaysia crushed China by 89 runs with a blistering display of power hitting in the first ever men’s cricket match played on Chinese soil at the Asian Games on Sunday.

Malaysia racked up a total of 162-8 in their 20 overs after being put into bat and the host nation had no answer in reply, struggling to 73-8.

Malaysia’s score was largely due to the big-hitting of Rakesh Madhavan, who notched a sparkling 68 off 58 balls, including five fours and a six.

Manrick Singh injected urgency into the innings late on, hitting a quickfire 36 off just 15 balls, including four towering sixes, in front of a sizeable crowd.

Both of the top-scoring batsmen were out in the final over but China were left with a mountain to climb in the Pool C fixture, needing to score at more than eight an over.

They struggled to eke out runs against some tight Malaysian bowling and fielding, reaching just 37-1 at the midway point of their innings as the required run rate rocketed.

Forced to take risks, wickets tumbled and China ended up well short of their target with Song Yangyang the top-scorer with 20 runs.

In the absence of India, who controversially refused to send a team to Guangzhou, the established Asian trio of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are braced for an emotion-fuelled gold medal assault with Afghanistan.

They all go straight to the quarter-finals with China, Malaysia, Nepal, Hong Kong and the Maldives battling to fill the other four spots.

Nepal and Hong Kong clash later Sunday in a Pool D match in Guangzhou as cricket makes its Asian Games debut.