Afghanistan dominated the first days play of the four day ICC Intercontinental Cup match at Tin Kwong Road dismissing Hong Kong for 142 and ending the day 128 runs ahead with 8 wickets in hand.
Hong Kong captain Babar Hayat won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket that looked easy paced and good for batting. Kyle Christie and Haroon Arshad made their debut in the competition and received their cap from Head Coach Simon Cook before the start of play.
Stiller and Carter opened the batting for Hong Kong with Stiller the first to go caught behind by Zazai off Dawlat Zadran for 6 leaving the hosts 21-1. Carter and Hayat set out to rebuild the innings and Carter looked solid whilst playing some elegant strokes through the offside. Rashid Khan entered the attack and made the second breakthrough with Carter being trapped lbw for 21 (41-2).
Hayat and Nizakat Khan put together a 43 run partnership with Hayat showing his intent by launching 2 huge sixes off Rashid that landed in the nearby housing estate and police station. Rashid wasn’t to be outdone and came back well to remove Hayat lbw for 39 (84-3). The Hong Kong middle order then succumbed to some excellent spin bowling from Rashid and Nabi. 84-3 soon became 97-7 and Hong Kong had lost all of their earlier momentum. Waqas Khan and Waqas Barkat fought hard to try and bring some respectability to the score with both players making 23. Kyle Christie was last man out for 2 as Hong Kong crumbled to a dismal 142 all out in just 47 overs. Rashid Khan (5-65) and Dawlat Zadran (3-15) were the standout bowlers for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s opening pair of Ahmadi and Ihsanullah strode out to the middle and from the offset and made their intent known with some excellent strokes through the offside. Hayat tried different bowling combinations but all to no avail as the 50 and 100 partnership were bought up with boundaries flowing down the ground and through the offside field. Ihsanullah and Ahmadi both bought up their half centuries before Ihsanullah was caught by the captain Hayat off the bowling of Rath for a well-made 63 (124-1). The hard hitting Shah arrived at the crease and set his stall out by striking two 6s in his first 5 balls. Afghanistan passed Hong Kong’s first innings of 142 with 9 wickets in hand and were well set going into the final hour of play on Day 1.
Javed Ahmadi went on to make an excellent century and was unfortunate to become the second wicket of the innings when Kyle Christie managed to get a finger end on one off his own bowling which left Ahmadi short of his ground at the non-strikers crease for a well-made 108 off 113 balls (203-2). Afghanistan captain Ashgar Stanikzai ended day 1 with a flourish and made his way to an aggressive 38 ball half century. Hong Kong will be frustrated with 2-3 dropped catches late in the day, a day which went perfectly for the visitors as they closed on 270-2 with Stanikzai 58 and Shah 34 the not out batsmen.
Hong Kong v Afghanistan – 4 Day Game
Date: 20-23 October, 2017
Venue: Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground
Tickets: Free
Additional reporting/images: HK Cricket