Hong Kong's chances washed away
Hong Kong's chances of progressing to the semi-final stages of the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup were washed away when they were beaten by Malaysia by seven wickets in a rain-affected match played at the Selangor Turf Club.
Hong Kong Cricket Association
24-Aug-2007
Hong Kong's chances of progressing to the semi-final stages of the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup were washed away when they were beaten by Malaysia by seven wickets in a rain-affected match played at the Selangor Turf Club.
With rain forecast, Hong Kong's chances were dealt a blow when they lost the toss and were asked to bat. The Hong Kong side included one change with Zuiad Khan coming for Shivang Baird.
Hong Kong tried a new opening pairing of Shakeel Haq and Nadeem Ahmed and the two got the team away to a reasonable start before Shakeel was caught in the 7th over with the score on 27. Nadeem and Robert Bacon pushed the total up to 53 before Nadeem was dismissed for 33. Irfan Ahmed, who hasn't fired yet at this tournament, only survived 4 balls and Hong Kong was suddenly looking shaky at 55-3 after 11.2 overs.
Worse was to follow as rain started falling shortly afterwards, forcing the players from the field at the end of the 13th over with Hong Kong on 61-3. A lengthy 2.5 hours delay saw the match reduced to 39 overs per team and the playing time, if required, extended to 6:45PM.
Upon resumption of play, Hong Kong's fortunes nose-dived as they lost the wickets of Robbie Bacon and Jamie Atkinson in quick succession. Courtney Kruger and Nicholas Lau combined for a 23-run partnership that took the score along to 98 before Lau was run out. The new batsmen Ashish Gadhia was also run out shortly afterwards as the Hong Kong batsmen seemed to hit the panic button in their search for quick runs.
John Bacon's dismissal left Hong Kong on the brink at 119-8 but Kruger and Zuiad Khan combined to lift the score to 135 before the third run out of the innings brought the partnership to a shuddering halt. Kruger could only add 4 more runs to the total before he was the last to fall for a well struck 44. Hong Kong had been dismissed for 139 in 37.4 overs.
With the Duckworth/Lewis system, which places much value on the number of wickets in tact at the end of the innings, coming into effect because of the rain interruption, Hong Kong's failure to bat out their allotted overs meant they gained little from the system.
When the Malaysians came out to bat, they faced a slightly revised target of 143 off 39 overs. At 20-0 after 5 overs the match suffered a further rain interruption and when play resumed again the target had been further reduced to 93 from 23 overs (or 73 from the 18 overs now remaining).
The Malaysian openers set about their task manfully, compiling a valuable half-century partnership before Shakeel trapped Shafiq Sharif LBW for 19. Malaysia's skipper, Faris Almas-Lee, brought his team to the brink of victory with a classy 38 and they reached their winning total in the 21st over for the loss of three wickets.
For his efforts, Faris Almas-Lee received the Man of the Match award.
Whilst Hong Kong still have a mathematical chance of making it to the semi-finals, they will have to beat the high-flying Afghanistan team and also hope for favourable results from other matches in their pool. In a worse case scenario, they may finish bottom of their group which will not only mean an early flight home but also demotion from the ACC Elite group to the ACC Challenger group of the Under-19 competition. There they will have to play the minnows of Asian cricket, such as China, Myanmar and Bhutan.
Hong Kong's final group match is against Afghanistan on Friday, 24th August 2007 at the international standard Kinrara Oval. The will be broadcast live on ACC's new hearcricket.com website.
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