Asia Cup 2022, Match number 6, Pakistan vs Hong Kong. 10.4 overs is all that Pakistan took to wrap up hong kong’s innings out. 38 all out, that’s the decimation of all shorts. Hong Kong won the flip of the coin and invited Pakistan to bat first. Pakistan scored 193/2 in their quota of 20 overs.
Babar Azam was dismissed for 9 (8) in the third over and that was the only thing in Hong Kong’s favor throughout the match. Rizwan, who completed his 5000 runs in T20 cricket, scored 78* runs in 57 balls, while Fakhar scored 53 runs in 41 balls and Khushdil’s blistering 35* runs in 15 balls towards the end, leading their side to 193.
In the chase, 193 looked nothing less than a mammoth score for Hong Kong as none of their batters went par 10 runs. Naseem Shah drew the first blood in the third over and then the whole team collapsed like a pack of cards, Hong Kong fell just short of 155 runs and got all out at just 38. Shadab Khan took 4 wickets, MD Nawaz took 3, and Naseem shah and Shahnawaz Dahani got 2 and 1 respectively.
What they said:
Nizakat, HK captain: Lots of learning from these two games. Must give credit to Pakistan. Their bowling was phenomenal. Our shot-making was poor.
Azam, Pakistan captain: Very good win for us. Weren’t able to get our shots away initially with the bat. Our plan is for batters at the top to play at the end. Becomes easier for those coming in. Naseem and Dahani are performing really well having made debuts very recently.
Rizwan, Player of the Match: Most important thing for us is to assess conditions. Our effort is to forget the format and assess conditions. The plan in the first 10 overs was to play with a straight bat. The ball was kept low. Being the main player, you have to take responsibility. You look at what the team demands.
Playing XIs:
Pakistan: Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Fakhar Zaman, Khushdil Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Babar Hayat, Yasim Murtaza, Kinchit Shah, Scott McKechnie (wk), Haroon Arshad, Aizaz Khan, Zeeshan Ali, Ehsan Khan, Ayush Shukla, Mohammad Ghazanfar
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