1864dThe Report by Danyal Rasool

Pakistan overpower Hong Kong to open Asia Cup campaign

Usman Khan and Shadab Khan dismantled Hong Kong's batting before Imam-ul-Haq's fifty guided them to an eight-wicket win

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

Imam-ul-Haq
Imam-ul-Haq
50(69) 3x4 - 1x6
Control %85%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 13 runs
  • 1x4 - 0x6
3 5 9 4 15 4 1 9
Babar Azam
Babar Azam
33(36) 3x4 - 1x6
Control %97%
  • Productive Shot
  • on drive
  • 12 runs
  • 1x4 - 1x6
0 0 3 5 9 0 12 4

Best performances - Bowlers

Usman Shinwari
Usman Shinwari
O7.3
M1
R19
W3
Eco2.53
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
2W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
Hasan Ali
Hasan Ali
O7.1
M0
R19
W2
Eco2.65
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W

Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu

Right, we're done for the night. Do join us again same time on Monday when Sri Lanka face Afghanistan in what is virtually a must-win game for them.

Usman Khan is Man of the Match for his 3 for 19. "When I came to bowl, I just tried to take a wicket with the new ball. But luck was not with me today. In the second spell, I tried, and with the ball reversing, I was able to take wickets. Fitness is okay. There was just a little bit of bleeding in the toe. I'm happy with my bowling today and it's given me lots of confidence. It's fun to play with a lot of strong players on the bench, all of us are good bowlers, we compete against each other and hopefully we can keep going forward and trying hard"

"This was a complete performance. But as captain I saw a couple of things, we'll work on that as well," Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed says, "For us to go the distance in the tournament, we should have won this game by nine wickets. We also need to get early wickets with the ball. Early on, the ball didn't swing and we had alarm bells. We have time to adjust to this before the India game. It's good to win, but to win against India, we have to be at our very best"

ESPNcricinfo Match Day is live on the homepage. Go there to check in with Deep Dasgupta and Saqlain Mushtaq

"Lots of soft dismissals. 120 [116] was not enough. It was a good wicket. Credit goes to the Pakistan bowlers," Hong Kong captain Anshy Rath says, "Our offspinners are top class, but we just didn't have enough runs on the board. I think early on, it swung a bit, there was a bit of bounce. We got through the start, but we couldn't convert it. One fifty-run partnership is not enough to post a good total"

9.00 pm Pakistan's bowling strength - it can't be overstated. Usman Khan picks up three wickets in an over. Shadab Khan struck with his first ball, an absolutely delicious googly. Mohammad Amir was tidy, if not quite threatening and Hasan Ali attacks the stumps with such a vengeance. It was always going to be hard for Hong Kong and once they folded for 116, there was only ever going to be one result at the end of the night. Former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq said this game would just be preparation for the one against India. But was it even that?

23.4
4
Aizaz Khan to Shoaib Malik, FOUR, launches a short ball to the midwicket boundary and seals a comprehensive win for Pakistan
23.3
1
Aizaz Khan to Imam-ul-Haq, 1 run, clips it off his hips through to deep square leg. Brings up fifty, his first, in addition to his four previous hundreds in ODIs
23.2
0
Aizaz Khan to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, blocks to point, looking for the run that gets him a fifty. Not there
23.1
1
Aizaz Khan to Shoaib Malik, 1 run, opens the face to plop a ball on off stump into the sprawling real estate at third man

END OF OVER:
23 | 10 Runs | PAK: 114/2 (3 runs required from 27 overs, RR: 4.95, RRR: 0.11)

  • Imam-ul-Haq49 (67b)
  • Shoaib Malik4 (9b)
  • Ehsan Khan8-0-34-2
  • Ehsan Nawaz4-0-27-0
22.6
4
Ehsan Khan to Imam-ul-Haq, FOUR, one-bounce into the long-on ropes. Imam is on 49, getting there with an eager couple of steps down the pitch and a launch over the bowler's head
22.5
0
Ehsan Khan to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, full on off stump, defends

Pakistan 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st41Fakhar ZamanImam-ul-Haq
2nd52Babar AzamImam-ul-Haq
3rd27Shoaib MalikImam-ul-Haq

Men's T20 Asia Cup

Super Four
TeamMWLPTNRR
SL33060.701
PAK3214-0.279
IND31221.607
AFG3030-2.006
Group A
TeamMWLPTNRR
IND22041.096
PAK21123.811
HKG2020-4.875
Group B
TeamMWLPTNRR
AFG22042.467
SL2112-2.233
BAN2020-0.576