||Desk Report||

Hong Kong failed to pull off what was seemingly turning into an upset against India, as the newcomers were clearly short on experience. With this match, all four spots in the Super Four have been sealed as winless Sri Lanka and Hong Kong are now out of the fray.

Winning the toss Hong Kong made a surprise call, inviting India to bat first.

India skipper Rohit Sharma failed to start with a big partnership and returned to the pavilion scoring 23 runs. Shikhar Dhawan, however, stitched two crucial partnerships with Ambati Rayudu (60) and Dinesh Karthik (33) while also picking up his hundred. His departure was followed by a collapse in the slog overs, which also saw MS Dhoni returning for a duck.

India managed to score only 48 runs in the last 60 deliveries of their innings, that too, because of a sensible 28-run knock from Kedar Jadhav. However, they still had 285 runs on the board losing seven of their wickets in 50 overs.

Two of the Hong Kong spinners, Ehsan and Kinchit Shah, accounted for five wickets and it was clear that the India spinners also had to take the onus on themselves to succeed at the Dubai International Stadium.

Hong Kong were off to a brilliant start with the bat, losing no wicket until the 35^th over. A 174-run partnership from their camp indeed piled enough pressure on India, with the Hong Kong skipper, Anshuman Rath, rotating the strike while his opening partner, Nizakat Shah took on the India bowlers. They kept the score ticking with calculative batting in the first-half of Hong Kong’s innings, but failed to maintain that as the asking rate crept up following the India spinners’ economical bowling.

Rath got dismissed on 73 and Nizakat Khan also lost his wicket in the next over, for 92 and the rest of the batters failed to take it from there.

Together, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep, and Yuzvendra Chahal kept getting on the opponents’ nerves as Hong Kong ended up 26 runs short of India’s total after batting for 50 full overs and losing eight wickets. Khaleel made a brilliant debut topping the wicket-taking chart for his side.

India will take on Pakistan in the last Group A-match on Wednesday (September 19). They will face-off each other to determine the group champions at the at the same venue. Both teams will be placed alongside Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the Group B-toppers, in the next round.

 

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