After suffering a heavy defeat to Malaysia in their Asian Games opener, Hong Kong, China bounced back to register a crucial 41-run win over Oman in their final Group B clash at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin. In another low-scoring encounter, pacer Ayush Shukla and leg-spinner Mohammad Ghazanfar combined for five wickets as Hong Kong, China defended 121 comfortably.
Electing to bat first, Hong Kong, China lost the experienced duo of Anshuman Rath and Nizakat Khan inside the first three overs. Babar Hayat and Hafeez Khan dragged the score to 34 by the end of the Powerplay and a 51-run stand for the third wicket put Hong Kong, China in a decent position at the halfway mark despite Oman stitching in quiet overs on a regular basis. Both batters fell within quick succession though, and it was followed by two more wickets as Mohammed Al Balushi removed Shahid Wasif and Shiv Mathur in the 14th over to finish with a three-fer.
Nasrulla Rana was bowled at the start of the 18th over, as Hong Kong, China’s score read 95/7. But Ehsan Khan struck a four and a six in a vital 16-run cameo, while skipper Yasim Murtaza remained unbeaten on 18 to take the score to 121, even as the innings ended in Ehsan’s run out.
Oman were rocked in the chase, losing a wicket in each of their first three overs with Shukla accounting for two of those. Rana struggled for control in the fourth, sending down as many as four wides but Shukla stayed on a rampage, cleaning up Muzaffar Shiralkar to leave Oman wobbling at 19/4. Shuaib Al Balushi, who had earlier struck a six off Shukla, scored two more boundaries to inject some purpose to the innings but Ehsan Khan and Murtaza tightened the screws as a lone run was scored across the eighth and ninth over.
Ghazanfar then reaped the benefits of it to bowl Shuaib, before trapping Issa Al Balushi in front as Oman were reduced to 46/6. Sufyan Mehmood and Abdul Jalil batted out the rest of the overs, but the discipline that the spinners showed resulted in an ever-increasing asking rate which Oman could not catch up with. Murtaza ended with miserly returns of 0/9, while Ghazanfar gave away just ten runs from his four-over quota. Hong Kong, China have now moved to second place while repairing their net run-rate considerably, with the Malaysia-Oman clash on Saturday to decide the fate of Group B.
Brief Scores: Hong Kong, China 121/8 in 20 overs (Hafeez Khan 33, Babar Hayat 23, Yasim Murtaza 18*; Mohammed Al Balushi 3-17, Sameer Othman 1-23) beat Oman 80/6 in 20 overs (Sufyan Mehmood 26*, Shuaib Al Balushi 20; Ayush Shukla 3-23, Mohammad Ghazanfar 2-10) by 41 runs