India's Asian Games quarter-final starts half an hour earlier as the venue has no lights

India's men's cricket quarter-final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will now begin at 10 am IST after organisers brought three knockout matches forward by half an hour

Organisers of the 2026 Asian Games have advanced the start of selected men's cricket knockout matches by 30 minutes. India's quarter-final on 28 September will now begin at 1.30 pm local time in Japan rather than the 2 pm originally published.

Japan is three hours and thirty minutes ahead of India, so the match starts at 10 am IST instead of 10.30 am. The women's cricket timings are unchanged.

The revised schedule has appeared on the Games' official website, but it has not reached everyone involved. The Free Press Journal reported that Indian Olympic Association officials said they were not aware of the change when contacted.

Three matches move, the rest hold

The revision covers the second quarter-final on 28 September, which India play; the second semi-final on 1 October, in which India would feature if they win; and the gold-medal match on 3 October.

All three now begin at 1.30 pm local time, or 10 am IST.

The first quarter-final, which involves Pakistan, the first semi-final and the bronze-medal play-off keep their 9 am starts, which is 5.30 am in India.

Preliminary-round matches, involving Afghanistan, hosts Japan, Nepal, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia and Oman, continue at 9 am and 2 pm.

A ground with no lights

Sources told the Free Press Journal that the matches were brought forward because "it gets dark early in Japan and the venue does not have floodlights", with men's games also expected to last longer.

Herald Goa carried the same explanation, reporting that the adjustment was "necessitated because it gets dark early in Japan and the venue does not have lights".

The cricket is being staged at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, a suburban ground in Aichi Prefecture. A half-hour head start is intended to get the longer afternoon fixtures finished in daylight.

The change is a scheduling one only. Neither report suggested any alteration to the venue, the format or the number of overs.

India enter at the quarter-final stage

Ten teams are entered in the men's tournament, and the four highest-seeded of them — India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh — have byes into the last eight. India's campaign is therefore three matches long at most.

Their quarter-final is against the runners-up from the preliminary group containing Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal, decided across three days of group cricket from 24 to 26 September.

The men's competition runs to 3 October. The women's tournament, an eight-team event that also begins at the quarter-final stage, is played at the same venue and is untouched by the revision.

Defending champions in both events

India won both cricket golds the last time the sport was on the Asian Games programme, at Hangzhou in 2023, on their debut in the competition.

The men were awarded a rain-ruined final against Afghanistan under a rule handing the title to the higher-ranked side. The women beat Sri Lanka by 21 runs.

The squad in Japan is led by Shreyas Iyer and includes Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy. Yash Thakur was named this week as a replacement for the injured Harshit Rana in India's squads for both the Asian Games and the Afghanistan T20Is.

India's women will be without Jemimah Rodrigues, who was ruled out of both the Asia Cup and the Asian Games in August.

A separate stop in Sano

India also meet Japan in a T20I on 22 September, a fixture that sits outside the Games programme and is the first men's international between the two countries.

That match, at the Sano International Cricket Ground, starts at 1 pm Japan time, or 9.30 am IST.

The Games themselves open on 19 September and close on 4 October, with the cricket spread across the second half of that window.

India's title defence now begins half an hour earlier than planned, at 10 am IST on 28 September.

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