AFG vs HK

That's all from this game. If the tournament opener is anything to go by, Afghanistan announce their intentions of bringing in their weight for the rest of the competition. This is Dwaipayan Mukherjee, signing off alongside my hard-working Bidipto Datta. We will see you soon! 

Rashid Khan (Afghanistan captain): "It was good to put a total on the board, but we need to lose less wickets early on. That's the area we need to improve on going forward. Azmatullah Omarzai batted really well! We have good spinners, so, bowling second helps. If we put a good total on the board, we increase our chances of winning. But we have to be prepared to chase as well. We will keep it in mind. It is tough to pick the right bowler to bowl, and then to select and drop certain bowlers. Putting Mujeeb out, not being able to bowl out Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar, these are not easy. But once you have options, it is a good headache!" 

Yasim Murtaza (Hong Kong China Captain) : "Feels like a dream come true, we all know that the Asia Cup is one of the premier tournaments and happy to be a part of this group. I did not expect them to score 180, at some point, I thought we would be able to restrict them to 150 but credit to their batters, credit to Omarzai on how he took the game away. The positive thing for us was Babar Hayat with the bat and the spinners in the middle overs. There is a lot for us to work on once we go back home after gaining the experiences that we have in this competition." 

Azmatullah Omarzai (Player of the Match, 53 off 21 balls and 1/4 off 2 overs): "It's very tough batting in the lower order, but I was playing well straight, so kept on going with my shots. I spoke to Sediqullah Atal and decided to bat normally till 16 overs, after that, go harder. I think I am both a bowler and a batter! It's 50-50!" 

10:26 PM local time (11:56 PM IST) : Afghanistan (188 for 7) defeat Hong Kong China (94 for 9) by 90 runs

Babar Hayat - 39 (43) | Gulbadin Naib - 2/8
Yasim Murtaza - 16 (26) | Fazalhaq Farooqi - 2/16

189 was always going to be difficult. And it never helps when the first wicket falls as early as in the 2nd ball of the chase. That dismissal might emerge as one of the controversial moments of the game as the caught behind replay showed daylight between bat and ball but even Anshuman Rath was convinced against taking the DRS by his opening partner, Zeeshan Ali. 

We have often heard about the advantages of an all-rounder having a good day - success in one facet of the game almost gets backed up by success with the other facet - be it bowling or batting. With Azmat's positive results with bat earlier in the day, he immediately delivered in his first over to make it 2 wickets in the first 2 overs of the chase. Matters went from bad to worse for the chasing side when Nizakat Khan was found short of his ground, being forced to go back even before he had faced a single ball. 3 wickets in as many overs. 

This match could have reached its conclusion even earlier if not for the 2 dropped catches in successive deliveries. Afghanistan will look back at these dropped catch opportunities as an area to improve when they tackle bigger teams later in the competition. Azmat showcased his wonderful fielding capabilities as he ran out the striker Kalhan Challu through an exceptional effort. When only a single batter from the top 6 makes it to double digits, we know that the batting group has had a pretty miserable day at work. 

Karim Janat redeemed himself with an athletic outfield catch, after dropping a relatively easy catch earlier. This match moved to the phase where the bigger action plan for Afghanistan would be strategising on how "early" can they win this contest and boost their net run rate, even before 10 overs of the chase were completed. Babar Hayat prolonged the resistance from his side. His 2nd maximum brought up the team fifty in the 12th over of the chase during a passage of play when Rashid Khan allowed his medium pace bowling all-rounders in Gulbadin Naib and Karim Janat some overs under their belt. 

For the first 14 overs, all 7 bowlers from Afghanistan had sent down 2 overs each. In the 16th over of the chase, Yasim Murtaza, who came out at 7, became only the 2nd batter from his side to reach double digits. Such was the measure of the appalling performance by the Hong Kong China batters. The bowling services of Mohammed Nabi were not even summoned by skipper Rashid Khan. When Gulbadin accounted for the Hong Kong China skipper Yasim Murtaza as the 8th wicket of the innings in the penultimate over, he was the first Afghanistan bowler to pick 2 wickets in the game. So it's fair to say that the spoils were equally distributed.

19.6 Fazalhaq Farooqi to Ayush Shukla, AFGHANISTAN GET THE WIN! HONG KONG MANAGE TO BAT OUT 20 OVERS. Round the wicket, short around off-stump. The slash over backward point off the back foot gets missed. 

19.5 Fazalhaq Farooqi to Ateequl Rehman Iqbal, good length and slow on middle-and-leg. Iqbal backs away and guides it down to third man for a single. 

19.3 Fazalhaq Farooqi to Ateequl Rehman Iqbal, round the wicket, back of a length on off-stump and slow. Iqbal makes room and pats it to backward point for no run. 

19.2 Fazalhaq Farooqi to Ehsan Khan, CAUGHT AND BOWLED! Back of a length and slow on leg-stump. Ehsan steps out and has to check his stroke. But as the ball went down in its trajectory, Farooqi went down on time as well and pouched it safely, inches off the ground in his follow through! 

19.1 Fazalhaq Farooqi to Ehsan Khan, over the wicket, slower ball bowled on the good length on off. Tapped around to short mid-wicket off the back foot, no run. 

Rahul: "There are only three proper batters, and can you believe 8 all-rounders in this side? that is insane!"
The variety and depth of this Afghanistan side has been pivotal in their rise over the last few years.