Twitter Reactions: India hammer Hong Kong to seal Super 4 spot
Indian spinners sealed the victory after Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav played brilliant knocks.
India hammered Hong Kong by 40 runs in their second match of the tournament to seal their spot in the Super 4 of the Asia Cup with two wins in two matches. The Men in Blue were favorites to win the game barring any miraculous effort from Hong Kong. The win was set up by the batting duo of Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav, who registered their respective half-centuries as India posted a hefty total of 192 runs on the board.
Hong Kong, in their chase, lost skipper Nizakat Khan cheaply, but it was the innings from Babar Hayat which gave the Indian team a scare in the powerplay overs. But Indian spin twins Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal stifled the flow of runs in the middle as the pitch had a bit of juice for the slower blowers.
After the dismissal of Hayat and Kinchit Shah, the result seemed like a foregone conclusion, and it was only a late blitz from Zeeshan Ali and Scott McKechnie, which pushed the Hong Kong total to a respectable 152 runs. The pair of Jadeja and Chahal conceded just 33 runs in their combined eight overs, annihilating the opposition batters in their chase.
Before the Indian bowlers sealed the win for the Men in Blue, it was the Indian batters who did the damage with the bat after Rohit Sharma's side were put into bat by the Hong Kong skipper. The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul started off steadily, and it was the Indian skipper who settled into the groove, providing India a brisk start before falling for a quickfire 21 off 13 deliveries.
Suryakumar Yadav stole the show with his breathtaking hitting in the death overs
Rohit's opening partner KL Rahul played a couple of cracking shots but struggled to score quick runs and perished after a turbulent innings of 36 runs off 39 deliveries. It was the Virat Kohli-Suryakumar Yadav show post Rahul's ouster as the pair dispatched the Hong Kong bowlers to all parts of the ground in a scintillating unbeaten 98-run stand off just 42 deliveries.
While Kohli looked like his old self, registering his 31st half-century in T20Is, it was Suryakumar Yadav who captivated the crowd in Dubai with his trademark hitting. The 31-year-old played some breathtaking shots in his sizzling innings of unbeaten 68 runs off just 26 deliveries, laden with six fours and the same number of maximums, with four of those coming in the final over.
The Hong Kong bowlers had no answers against the assault of Kohli and Suryakumar, who looked in ominous touch with the bat. Ehsan Khan and Yasim Murtaza were the only two bowlers, who had some respite in the Indian innings as they went under seven RPO in the match.
Here's how Twitter reacted to India's triumph:
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