India-Pakistan blockbuster brings cricket fever to Japan baseball field

One of sport’s fiercest rivalries descended on a sleepy corner of Japan on Saturday as India and Pakistan clashed in the men’s cricket final at the Asian Games on a converted baseball field. The neighbours only meet in international tournaments because of long-running political tensions and matches between them typically attract television audiences of hundreds of millions back home. The gold-medal encounter in a suburban park in Nagoya was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Indians and Pakistanis living in Japan. They lined up hours before the game to get into the cosy 2,500-capacity…