Highlights
- Yasim Murtaza was awarded as the player of the match
- Hong Kong is currently ranked number 1 in the Asia Cup qualifier points table
- Team Hong Kong will now play its final game against UAE on August 24
HK vs KUW: The start of the Asia Cup is within a touching distance and the teams from the Asian subcontinent are ready and raring to go. Teams like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka have been playing loads of cricket and have got an ample amount of game time just before they head into the all-important Asia Cup. The multi-nation cricketing event that was supposed to be played in Sri Lanka has now moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Sri Lankan islands have been hit by one of the worst financial crisis in the history of their country and with the situation going haywire all around the country, the tournament was moved to the United Arab Emirates.
Qualification rounds are on for the Asia Cup and teams like Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait are having a crack at each other to make their mark and enter the league stage of the tournament. As of now, Hong Kong leads the points table with 4 points. team Hong Kong have played two matches and won both which gives them an edge ahead of all the participating teams. UAE is ranked second with one win in two games and is followed by Kuwait who is in a similar kind of situation. UAE and Kuwait are on the same points and owing to UAE's higher run rate, they are placed second in the points table.
In the 4th match of the qualifier, Hong Kong won the toss and opted to field first. Kuwait had a job cut out for themselves. They had a chance to go all the way up on the points table. To Kuwait's dismay, openers Meet Bhavsar and Ravija Sandaruwan could not make any notable contribution towards the team's cause and were dismissed very cheaply by Aizaz Khan. Kuwait's no. 3 Adnan Idrees and wicketkeeper Usman Patel too were dismissed very cheaply as they left their team reeling on 56/4. team Kuwait could never recover from these early blows and none of their batsmen could go past 30 runs except Edson Silva, who provided some respite to his team by scoring 56 off 30 deliveries. team Kuwait finished on 151 and it was now Hong Kong's time to chase.
Keeping their dominant streak alive, Hong Kong openers Yasim Murtaza and skipper Nizakat Khan registered an opening stand of 59 runs. Murtaza scored 46 off 33 deliveries with 7 boundaries and 1 six, whereas, skipper Khan scored a sublime 50 off 43 deliveries. Both Murtaza and Khan's batting prowess left Kuwait clueless and they were left with nothing much to do. Following up with Murtaza and Khan's act, Babar Hayat too scored a gritty 53 off 30 deliveries which propelled Hong Kong's score to 153/2 as they won the match by 8 wickets and maintained their firm grip on the points table.
Teams
Hong Kong XI: Nizakat Khan(c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie(w), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla
Kuwait XI: Ravija Sandaruwan, Meet Bhavsar, Adnan Idrees, Usman Patel(w), Shiraz Khan, Bilal Tahir, Mohammed Aslam(c), Edson Silva, Sayed Monib, Yasin Patel, Mohamed Shafeeq
