Asia Cup Qualifier 2018, Final, Review: Hong Kong hold onto their nerves in a thriller

Hong Kong is the sixth team that will be taking part in the Asia Cup 2018. In a thrilling final, they managed to defeat the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 2 wickets to lift the trophy. The momentum of the game kept swinging between both the teams just like a pendulum and kept the fans on the edge of their seats.

Hong Kong sealed a memorable win and it showed on the players’ faces what this victory meant to them. The team is now placed in the Group A along with the likes of India and Pakistan. UAE fans would be quite disappointed with the result of the game as there were some high expectations from them.

Rain affects UAE’s chances in the final

Hong Kong won the toss and opted to bowl first in this big encounter. The final was reduced to 24 overs a side due to a rain interruption. This affected UAE big time as they were pacing themselves for a 50-over game. The team scored 65 runs and lost three wickets in 15.2 overs before it started pouring in. A sudden interruption and shortened game meant that they had to go to the top gear and accumulate as many runs as possible in the remaining 9 overs.

In the last 8.4 overs of the innings, UAE added a mammoth 111 runs and took the team’s score to 176 runs in 24 overs after losing 9 wickets. Ashfaq Ahmed with 79 runs off 51 balls was brilliant with the bat. The lower order batsmen aimed at scoring as many runs as possible in the least number of deliveries. The team could have ended up putting more runs had they played some aggressive cricket right from the start.

The openers provide the ideal start for Hong Kong

In the chase, the Hong Kong openers went all guns blazing and were absolutely relentless in the first 6 overs. They added 64 runs in 6 overs and the team couldn’t have asked for anything better. While Nizakat Khan scored 38 off 20 balls, his partner Anshuman Rath scored 28 off 25 balls. However, the team lost three quick wickets in the next two overs getting UAE right back into the game.

After this mini-collapse, Christopher Carter with 33 off 32 balls and Ehsan Khan with 29 off 24 balls restabilised the innings. But yet again, UAE bowlers chipped in with a few quick wickets as Hong Kong were down to 147/7 in the 20th over. Keeper Scott McKechnie and Tanwir Afzal played some crucial knocks down the order to help get the team home with three balls remaining. Although the bowlers tried their level best right until the last over, Hong Kong proved to be the better team on the day.

Brief Scores:

UAE: 176/9 in 24 overs (Ashfaq Ahmed 79, Shaiman Anwar 22, Aizaz Khan 5/28)

Hong Kong: 179/8 in 23.3 overs (Nizakat Khan 38, Christopher Carter 33, Mohammad Naveed 2/47)

Result: Hong Kong won by 2 wickets (Match reduced to 24 overs per side due to rain)

Man of the Match: Aizaz Khan

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