Asia Cup Qualifier 2022: Hong Kong brush aside Kuwait, but crucial match with UAE awaits
- Hong Kong have now comfortably defeated Kuwait and Singapore, but a final game with UAE on Wednesday night will decide their fate
- Should they win, a place in the Asia Cup awaits where they will join Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan
Hong Kong will face United Arab Emirates in their final match for Asia Cup qualification late Wednesday, with the winner guaranteed a shot against India on August 31 in Dubai and Pakistan on September 2 in Sharjah.
The high stakes game comes less than 24 hours after Hong Kong defeated Kuwait by eight wickets in the qualification rounds of the tournament in Oman.
“We started very well with our bowling,” Khan said. “We started really well with our batting too, especially Yasim played really well. We played positive cricket, putting away the bad balls, and we knew if our top order could bat until tea, we could chase this total very comfortably and that is what we did today.”
Against Kuwait, Hong Kong were able to apply early pressure after winning the toss and electing to field. Despite a shaky start, Kuwait went on to set a chase of 151, thanks to a solid knock from Edson Silva, who top-scored for Kuwait with 56 runs.
In the end however, the target was not enough and Hong Kong sailed through their chase, to win by eight wickets, in just 17.4 overs.
“We executed our plans in our power play, but in the death overs we need to sit down and have a clear plan and see how we are going to approach the UAE batters,” Khan said.
