Tag: Ireland

A brilliant century from Nizakat Khan wasn’t enough for Hong Kong as Ireland triumphed by 70 runs in their Intercontinental Cup clash at Stormont.

Hong Kong claimed the last three Irish wickets for nine runs to dismiss the hosts for 230 in their second innings – but the target of 310 for victory proved too much.

Hong Kong, who had just 18 First Class appearances in the team compared to Ireland’s 943 were not disgraced, as Nizakat’s 123 kept the visitors with a fighting chance deep into the fourth and final day. Hong Kong were eventually dismissed for 239 in their second innings.

Nizakat became just the third batsman to score a century in a First Class match for Hong Kong, which came from 181 balls. He had also scored 69 runs in the first innings. Unfortunately, he couldn’t garner enough support with Babar Hayat and Nadeem Ahmed’s scores of 28 the next best for Hong Kong.

The win moves Ireland back to the top of the Intercontinental Cup table, while Hong Kong remain in fourth place.

IRELAND 316 (G Wilson 95 Tanwir Afzal 4-63 Nadeem Ahmed 4-73) & 230 (J Anderson 59 Tanwir Afzal 3-53 Nadeem Ahmed 3-65) def HONG KONG 237 (Anshuman Rath 73* Nizakat Khan 69) & 239 (Nizakat Khan 123 T Murtagh 4-29)

Interview with Nizakat Khan
“I think we’ve improved a lot as a team – the guys are getting mature. Ireland are a top team and more experienced than us – this match shows clearly that we can compete against these big teams. We are fit now and no complaints from us we are looking forward to the T20s.”

“I need to give credit to Mark Wright who has helped me with my batting and to Cambo (Ryan Campbell) and Cooky (Simon Cook). I was full of confidence before the game and I knew I would perform – it was unfortunate we lost but every one chipped and we will build on that for next game.”

“It felt really good to make a 100 – when I came here I just wanted to score a hundred and it was an amazing feeling – it wasn’t easy but I just fought to the end. I’m happy with myself but I know I still have a lot of improvement to make.”

Interview with Simon Cook
“I can’t help but look back on that first session where we leaked 40 or 50 runs and that put us behind the game on a low scoring pitch and you can’t give them that sort of head start and it came down to that at the end. We fought valiantly in the last innings here. Nizakat was outstanding but no one played with him.”

“In defeat we had so many positives and to bat 100 over in the first innings and 80 overs in the second was a great effort. We have played some really good cricket and I think a few here were surprised as to how much of a fight we put up. I’m really happy with how we played but disappointed with the result I was confident we could win the game after our preparation.”

“This morning’s wickets set up our momentum – we thought we could chase 300 down and at lunch time we weren’t in a bad position. But a couple of quick wickets we were back on the back foot. We felt if we could bat the whole day we would win and we were 17 overs short of that.”

“Nizkakat has been working really hard on a technical change in how he combats the short ball he’s worked really hard. After all his hard work I was confident he was going to perform because the last week he was hitting the ball so well in the nets and as soon as he went out to the crease he was moving really well. When he’s playing like this he’s looking like a million dollars and a First Class cricketer but he needs to keep pushing to make his game as consistent as possible. He could be one of the top Associate batters in the world.”