Thailand, Malaysia and China qualify for Asian Games women's competition

          Naruemol Chaiwai and Natthakan Chantham added 42 runs for the third wicket Asian Cricket Council
          • ESPNcricinfo staff
          May 31, 2026, 04:37 AM ET

          Thailand and Malaysia, who contested the final of the qualifying tournament for the women's cricket event at the 2026 Asian Games, have made the cut for the showpiece competition along with China, who finished third. The Asian Games will be held in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya in Japan in September-October.

          At the qualifying tournament, played in Kuala Lumpur between May 26 and May 31, Thailand topped the Group A table after wins over Malaysia and Hong Kong. Malaysia then beat Hong Kong to get into the semi-finals, where the two teams were joined by group B toppers Nepal and runners-up China. In the semi-finals, Thailand beat China by 83 runs after bowling them out for 53, and Malaysia crossed Nepal's 126 for 6 with two wickets and eight balls in hand.

          With the finalists gaining automatic qualification for the Asian Games, only the result of the third-place playoff was of any real interest, and China got the better of Nepal in that rain-hit game with a five-wicket win (DLS) on Sunday. Later in the day, Thailand bowled Malaysia out for 54 before running out nine-wicket victors.

          Thailand are, in any case, one of the top-rated Associate teams in women's cricket, and even took part in the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2020 after making it through the qualifiers in 2019. Thailand are currently at No. 12 on the ICC rankings for women's T20I teams, with Malaysia at 28th and China at 42nd.

          At the Asian Games, women's cricket will be played between eight teams in the T20 format, with the four Full Members from the region - Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - gaining automatic qualification along with Japan, the hosts.

          The men's qualifying tournament is still on. Apart from Japan, the five Full Members from the region - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - qualified directly, while four teams will join them from the qualifiers, being contested by Nepal, China, Malaysia, Qatar, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Oman and Singapore.