GUANGZHOU, Nov 21 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 opener 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 as medium-pacer Li Jian grabbed three late wickets, but China were left with a mountain to climb in the Pool C fixture, needing to score at more than eight an over.

When it came to China's turn to bat they struggled to eke out runs against some tight Malaysian bowling and fielding, reaching just 37-1 at the midway point of their innings.

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, 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 into the quarter-finals.

China will meet Pakistan on Monday for a place in the semi-finals with Malaysia facing Bangladesh in the last eight on Tuesday.

Nepal, Hong Kong and the Maldives are battling it out in Pool D to fill the other two spots with Hong Kong getting a march on their opponents with a big win on Sunday.

They beat Nepal by 30 runs with Roy Lamsam scoring 47 of their 115 runs while Amrit Bhattarai claimed 3-16 as the Nepalese were restricted to 85-9.

Results

Pool C Malaysia beat China by 89 runs.

MALAYSIA 162-8 in 20 overs (Rakesh Madhavan 68, Manrick Singh 36; Li Jian 3-8); CHINA 73-8.

Pool D Hong Kong beat Nepal by 30 runs.

HONG KONG 115 (Roy Lamsam 47; Amrit Bhattarai 3-16); NEPAL 85-9 (Nadeem Ahmed 3-12).—AFP