India take Hong Kong sixes title

India celebrate their victory in the Hong Kong Sixes © HKCA

India are the new champions of the Hong Kong Sixes, after seeing off West Indies with a comfortable six balls to spare in the final. England, the former title-holders, had earlier bowed out at the semi-final stage, losing to West Indies by six runs.

India's star was the former one-day international allrounder, Robin Singh, who led by example, scoring 34 off 15 balls before retiring, leaving Hrishikesh Kanitkar to hit the winning runs. West Indies had managed a total of 72 for 1 in five eight-ball overs, but it never looked like being enough.

"We really wanted to restrict them and the bowlers did a magnificent job," Singh told the Press Association, after claiming the 100,000 dollar prize. "We played to win the tournament and that's what we did so we are delighted."

England had been the winners in both 2003 and 2004, but this time their challenge came to an end at the semi-final stage, when Robert Croft's team were unable to overhaul a total of 72 for 3, in which Lendl Simmons top-scored with 25. Chris Read gave England hope by clobbering 27 runs from nine balls, but a collapse of three wickets for two runs scuppered their prospects.

"Obviously we're a bit disappointed," said England's Kabir Ali, after England had failed to reach the final for the first time in four years. "We could have done a better job. We did a decent job with the ball but with the batting, we sort of collapsed there in the middle after the good start we had.

In the other semi-final, India beat Sri Lanka by four wickets.