Nizakhat Khan led, Hong Kong suffered a 40-run defeat against India in Asia Cup,2022 group B match.
After losing the toss, India started their innings with a run rate of 7 per over until the arrival of SKY. Suryakumar Yadav’s blistering knock of 68 runs from 26 balls, helped India put on a massive score of 192 against Hong Kong. India scored 78 odd runs in the last five overs with SKY playing at a strike rate of 261. In response, Hong Kong started out scoring 51 runs in the powerplay. Babar Hayat played some dazzling strokes. They came down hard on Indian pacers Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh but, India managed to hold on to the nerves and took home a convincing win.
Hong Kong qualified for the tournament after bossing the qualifiers by winning all their matches. They were high on confidence and showed a heartwarming performance. Their captain, Nizakat Khan, gave some incites on their performance in the post-match presentation dialogue. He held death bowling accountable for the loss. He said,
“The way we started with the ball until the 13th over we were amazing. Our fielding was amazing as well. But we slipped after that“
He further praised Suryakumar’s knock and said,
“The way Suryakumar batted, it was good to watch”
Nizakat pleased with the team’s performance
Nizakat Khan was happy with the overall display of quality show from the team despite inexperience and injury concerns. He was quoted saying,
“Asia Cup is a good opportunity for the boys. We were away for a long time, credit goes to boys and I am really proud of them“
A remarkable display of intent from the underdogs
Hong Kong being the underdogs showed brilliant resilience and were dominating the game until the 13th over. Surya’s knock shifted the momentum completely towards India. SKY and Virat put up a partnership of 98 runs in just 45 deliveries, dismantling their death bowling altogether to the core. With a target of nearly 200 runs on board, Hong Kong showed significant intent. They took Indian pacers to the cleaners and fell short of just 40 odd runs.
Their next match against Pakistan will be a knockout game for claiming the last spot in the super four teams. The winning teams go through the supers 4’s. Hong Kong skipper is confident of putting up a good show against Pakistan who lost a nail-biting thriller against India in the opening match. He said,
“We are gonna sit down tomorrow, we’ll have a look at our death bowling. We will improve.”
India, Afghanistan, and Srilanka have already qualified for the super fours. The last game between Pakistan vs Hong Kong for the last spot is going to be a cracking contest. The winner will face India in the semi-final. With the kind of performance shown by underdogs and keeping the uncertainty of the format in mind, major upsets cannot be ruled out.
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