Hong Kong vs UAE: The all-important Asia Cup is about to start and the first match will be played on August 27, 2022, between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. The marquee tournament will see participation from six teams which are segregated into two groups. Group A includes India, Pakistan & Hong Kong, and on the other side, there is Group B which includes the likes of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Almost all the teams have reached the United Arab Emirates and have started preparing for the event. Hong Kong, on the other hand, is the newest entry into the tournament and they are coming off a dominant run against teams like Kuwait, UAE, and Singapore. Team Hong Kong has been placed in the same group as India and Pakistan and it will be interesting to see how they react to tough situations when they take the field against team India. Here is how Hong Kong fared in the Asia Cup Qualifiers and made a thumping entry into the group stage.
Match 1: Hong Kong vs Singapore
In the opening match, Singapore won the toss and opted to field first against Hong Kong. With opener Nizakat Khan being dismissed on zero, Hong Kong had plenty of problems looming for them till the time Yasim Murtaza got in and scored some runs. Murtaza scored valuable 26 runs and was followed by KD Shah's 34 off 32 deliveries. Courtesy of some valuable batting performances, Hong Kong ended on 148 odd runs. In reply, Singapore had a pretty similar start as they too lost their opener Rohan Rangarajan for a duck. Driven by Aritra Dutta and Janak Prakash's 29 and 31 runs, Singapore somehow reached the 140-run landmark but ended up losing by 8 runs.
Match 4: Hong Kong vs Kuwait
After registering a comfortable victory in the first match, Kuwait awaited Hong Kong in their second match. A confident Hong Kong with a clear understanding of its strategy won the toss and opted to field first. Strike bowler for Hong Kong, Aizaz Khan dismissed the Kuwait openers and reduced them to 18/2. late cameos from Mohammed Aslam and Edson Silva helped Kuwait cruise through and put up a decent total of 151 on board. Courtesy of Yasim Murtaza's 46 and skipper Nizakat Khan's 50, team Hong Kong chased down the total of 153 with 8 wickets remaining and strengthened their grip on the qualifiers points table.
Match 6: Hong Kong vs UAE
Keeping the group stages of the Asia Cup firmly in mind, team Hong Kong took on UAE in the final match of the qualifiers. Following their old recipe of victory, team Hong Kong once again opted to field after they won the toss. Hong Kong pacer Ehsan Khan was the wrecker-in-chief as he scalped 4 important wickets and restrained the UAE batsmen from taking off. UAE skipper Chundangapoyil Rizwan stood tall and scored a handsome 49 which was followed by Zawar Farid's 41 which helped UAE to register 147 on the board. repeating their heroics against Kuwait, the Hong Kong openers stitched together a partnership of 85 for the first wicket which later helped them to clinch the match by 8 wickets.
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Hong Kong take on India on August 31, 2022, Wednesday in their first match of this marquee event.
Hong Kong squad: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Babar Hayat, Aftab Hussain, Ateeq Iqbal, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Ghazanfar Mohammad, Yasim Murtaza, Dhananjay Rao, Wajid Shah, Ayush Shukla, Ahan Trivedi, Mohammad Waheed.
