Japan Bat 119 Balls, India Need 30: Charani's Four and Shafali's Fury Book a Semi-Final

There are quarter-finals, and then there are quarter-finals played by the host nation at its own Asian Games. Japan Women came out against India in Nisshin and did the thing underdogs are supposed to do: they refused to get out. After six overs they were 24 without loss.

It could not last against an attack of this depth, and it did not. Shree Charani took 4 for 10, Japan were bowled out for 57 off the penultimate ball of their innings, and Shafali Verma took the chase away in 15 balls. India Women are in the semi-finals, and they got there in 24.5 overs of cricket.

India's seamers, Kranti Gaud and Nandani Sharma, bowled four overs between them for ten runs without a wicket. Japan's openers, Haruna Iwasaki and Ayaka Kato-Stafford, played for time and got it. Twenty-four without loss after the powerplay is not a scoring rate that frightens anyone, but in a knockout against India it was a genuine achievement.

The first break came in the seventh over, and it came twice: Iwasaki caught for 10, Mai Yanagida caught first ball, and Japan were 24 for 2. From there Shree Charani's left-arm spin did the rest. Kato-Stafford batted into the fifteenth over for 25 from 47 before she was fourth out at 46, and from 46 for 4 Japan lost their last six wickets for 11 runs, two of them to run-outs. The final wicket fell to the penultimate ball of the innings.

Judged against the scoreboard, 57 all out looks like a rout. Judged against what Japan set out to do, it was more complicated. They batted 119 balls against an attack with international pedigree through every one of its six bowlers, and only two of their batters, Kato-Stafford and Iwasaki, reached double figures. The problem was not attitude; it was that against bowlers who give nothing, survival and scoring became mutually exclusive.

With the ball, Nonoha Yasumoto can be proud of her two overs — a maiden and a wicket — in a chase where every other Japanese bowler went for 14 or more in their single over.

Slow, and it rewarded bowlers who took pace off. India's spinners — Charani, Deepti Sharma, Shreyanka Patil and Shafali's part-time off-breaks — bowled 15.5 overs between them for 45 runs and eight wickets. That the same pitch then yielded 59 in five overs says less about the surface than about Shafali Verma.

Four overs, two maidens, four wickets, ten runs. Charani's figures would be exceptional in any T20 international, and in a knockout they were decisive — she was the bowler who turned a slow squeeze into a collapse. Twelve of her 24 deliveries were dot balls in the maidens alone.

Then Shafali. India lost Gunalan Kamalini in the second over and Fulmali in the third and were 24 for 2, a small echo of Japan's own start. Shafali made it irrelevant: 40 not out from 15 balls, six fours and two sixes, with Richa Ghosh adding 12 from 6 at the other end. India reached 50 in 4.4 overs. Shafali also took 2 for 13 from her four overs, which makes this about as complete a day as a player can have in a match that lasted less than 25 overs.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we did not preview the Asian Games quarter-finals. We'll have full analysis for India's semi-final against Bangladesh.

India Women face Bangladesh Women in the second semi-final on Sunday, September 20, at Korogi Sports Park. Bangladesh reached the last four without playing a ball, their quarter-final against China having been abandoned on Thursday, so they arrive fresh but untested. The first semi-final is Pakistan Women against Sri Lanka Women, and the medal matches follow on September 22. For Japan, a quarter-final at a home Asian Games is a result to build on.