Hong Kong have been beaten in a thriller in their opening Asia Cup qualifier against Oman in Dhaka. Chasing 181 runs to win, Babar Hayat smashed the fourth fastest Twenty20 International century of all time off just 50 balls but Hong Kong still fell five runs short.
Hayat ended up on 122 off 60 balls, his innings included 9 fours and 7 sixes. “I was happy with the way I played but we should have won the game so I should be a lot happier, to end up on the losing side is never a good thing,” Hayat said “When you are chasing a big total you have to be aggressive so I just tried to do this and everything kept coming out of the middle. It’s the best innings I’ve played and my first hundred in T20 international cricket so I am happy with this.”
Hong Kong at one stage required 45 runs off the last three overs but rocketed back into contention when Hayat hit four sixes in an over that went for 27. “I’ve never done that before,” Hayat said “I did target that bowler and at that stage we had no choice but to go for it, I thought from there we deserved to win.”
However some accurate death bowling from Oman prevented Hong Kong from achieving the remaining 18 runs off 12 balls. Coach Simon Cook paid high praise for Hayat’s innings and lamented the fact it did not result in a win.
“Outstanding innings, he’s become a lot more consistent over the last few months and again proven why he’s the best batsman in Hong Kong,” Cook said “He controlled the innings perfectly and it showed that we let them get 20 runs too many because even with a fantastic innings by Babar, he still ended up on the losing side.”
While Hayat’s century was the highlight of the match, a controversial incident caused a stir when Hong Kong’s Mark Chapman fell victim to a mankad and Cook wasn’t impressed. “Yes it’s in the laws but I think it goes against the spirit of the game when you’re not at least giving a warning,” Cook said “Ultimately it’s a cowardly way out really, if you’re battling against one another, man against man, out in the middle and you choose to go down that route to get a wicket and win the game, it’s not really in the spirit of cricket.”
Oman won the toss and chose to bat, the innings got off to a solid start as Jatinder Singh (42 off 35 balls) added 34 with opening partner Zeeshan and 41 with No. 3 Vaibhav Wategaonkar to move them to 75 for 1 at the 10-over mark. Left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed dismissed both Jatinder and Wategaonkar in the 11th over, but every member of Oman’s middle order chipped in to ensure there was no loss of momentum. Adnan Ilyas (23) and Aamir Kaleem (19) were dismissed in quick succession after putting on 38 for the fourth wicket, before Mehran Khan (28* off 16) and Amir Ali (32* off 13) gave the innings an explosive finish, adding an unbroken 50 runs for the sixth wicket, off just 24 balls.
Hong Kong’s next match is against UAE on Sunday – a must win game to keep their qualification hopes alive.
Source: HK Cricket Association, Image: © ICC