Man of the Match Irfan Ahmed blazed to a 55-ball 98 after which left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed took a career-best 5 for 12 to lead Hong Kong past Namibia by 83 runs. The victory ensured Hong Kong’s qualification for the playoff stages and they remain in the hunt for a World T20 spot. Namibia, despite the loss, will join them.
Hong Kong, having been inserted, got off to a rapid start – 56 in five overs – before Gerrie Snyman dismissed Jamie Atkinson in the sixth over. Two 30-plus partnerships took the total past 120. Irfan then added 54 runs off 26 balls with Babar Hayat for the third wicket, but both batsmen fell in the space of two balls. Hong Kong were 178 for 5 in the 18th over, but could only add 19 runs in the remaining 15 deliveries to finish on 197 for 8.
Irfan had four sixes and nine fours to make his career best score, but fell fell two runs short of what would have been the first century of this year’s World T20 Qualifier.
Namibia openers Snyman and Stephan Baard began the chase strongly. They took the score to 23 for 0 in the second over but fell in successive balls to seamer Haseeb Amjad. Then captain Tanvir Afzal got rid of Raymond van Schoor in the fifth over but Namibia kept up with the asking rate and were 101 for 4 in the 11th over. But they lost the remaining six wickets for only 13 runs.
Nadeem was at the centre of that collapse, strike twice in 12th and doing it again in the 14th over to run through the tail and bring the match to a very quick and abrupt finish.
The win saw Hong Kong finish second in Group A and they will play Afghanistan on 21 July – the winner of that game will qualify for the WorldT20 in India in 2016 and move into the semi-finals of the tournament. The loser gets another chance against the fourth place team.
Additional reporting: Cricinfo
