The men’s cricket knockout schedule for the Asian Games has been nudged forward, with key afternoon fixtures now starting 30 minutes earlier than originally planned.
Under the revised timetable, all afternoon men’s matches will begin at 1.30 pm local time instead of 2 pm. The women’s fixtures remain untouched, their start times holding firm.
For India’s men, who have a direct ticket to the quarter-finals of the Aichi-Nagoya Games 2026, the tweak is significant. Their first outing is now locked in for a 1.30 pm start in Japan. With Japan 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead, that means a 10 am start back home in India (IST). The morning slot stays as it was: 9 am local time, 5.30 am IST.
The pattern continues deep into the business end of the tournament. The second semi-final and the gold-medal match are both set for 1.30 pm Japan Time, keeping them in the earlier afternoon window. Those are precisely the slots India are expected to occupy if they progress as anticipated.
Yet, not everyone seems to have received the memo. Indian Olympic Association officials say they have not been informed of any change, even though the updated timings are already live on the official schedule.
The adjustment targets specific, high-stakes fixtures. It applies to:
- The second quarter-final on September 28, which India will play.
- The second semi-final on October 1, where India are likely to feature.
- The gold-medal match on October 3.
By contrast, the first quarter-final – involving Pakistan – stays in the original morning window at 9 am local time, as do the first semi-final and the bronze-medal play-off.
The preliminary-round games are untouched. Fixtures featuring Afghanistan, Japan, Nepal, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia and Oman keep their original timings. The women’s competition, which begins straight from the quarter-final stage, also stays on its original grid, with matches at 9 am and 2 pm local time.
So why the shift? Officials close to the planning point to a simple, practical reason: daylight. It gets dark early in Japan, and with no floodlights at the venue, organisers have opted to push the men’s knockouts forward, mindful that those contests are likely to run longer.
Away from the Games schedule, India’s T20I against Japan on September 22 at Sano International Stadium – a standalone fixture not part of the multi-sport event – will begin at 1 pm JST, which is 9.30 am IST. A different match, a different clock, but the same underlying theme: in Japan, cricket will be racing the sun.
