Hong Kong's fate hangs in the balance after losing to Afghanistan

Hong Kong's continued participation in the ACC Under-19 Elite group now hangs in the balance after losing to Afghanistan by 17 runs today. The loss, Hong Kong's third of the tournament, eliminates them from semi-final contention but, worse, means they may finish bottom of their group and therefore relegation to the ACC Challenge Group for future tournaments.

Although Hong Kong put up a brave fight against the fancied Afghanis, their efforts came up just short in a tight match played at the international size Kinrara Oval.

For Hong Kong, Sajid Khan came into the starting eleven in place of Irfan Ahmed who was suffering from a groin strain, although his poor form with the bat meant his place in the team was by no means assured.

Things started positively for Hong Kong as they won the toss and elected to bowl. Zafaran Ali grabbed two quick wickets and when Zuiad Khan picked up another, Afghanistan looked to be in trouble at 25-3 in the 7th over. But if Hong Kong's hopes were raised, they hadn't counted on Obaidullah Kunari. The burly right-hander took a couple of balls to get his eye in and then launched a blistering assault on the Hong Kong bowling attack, hitting the 3rd, 8th, 10th and 12th deliveries he faced out of the ground. None of the Hong Kong bowler's were spared as Kunari bludgeoned six sixes in his 19 ball innings worth 44 runs. His innings finally came to an end when Shakeel Haq induced a miscued top-edge that was easily taken by Robert Bacon at first slip.

With Kunari out of the way, the Hong Kong trio of slow left-arm bowlers reasserted themselves on the game. Nadeem Ahmed, Shakeel Haq and John Bacon sent down 29.4 overs and claimed 8 wickets for 95 runs between them with Shakeel Haq picking up the impressive figures of 4-43 despite taking the brunt of Kunari's early assault. John Bacon claimed 2-27 while Nadeem finish with 1-25 in another economic spell.

For Afghanistan, Noor Ul-Haq, known by his team-mates as 'The Rock', kept the spinners at bay and steered his team to a respectable total. His 64 runs came from 124 balls and including six fours and two sixes (the two sixes being his last two scoring strokes). His two partnerships with Kunari (52) and Shabir Noori (76) provided the backbone of the innings, that finally reached a total of 189 all out from 49.4 overs.

Jamie Atkinson was tidy behind the stumps for Hong Kong, picking up two catches and two stumpings.

At one stage, while Kunari was blazing away, it looked like Afghanistan would post a score of 250+, so Hong Kong would have been pleased with their efforts to bring the match back into their reach.

With Hong Kong getting through their overs in quick time, they were required to bat for a tricky 20 minute spell before the scheduled lunch break. Unfortunately, Nadeem Ahmed received a snorter of a delivery from the last ball of Izatullah Khan's first over and he could only ballon a catch to Sajed Khan at first slip off the shoulder of his bat. Robbie Bacon and Shakeel Haq saw Hong Kong safely through to lunch without further loss at 14-1 from 7 overs.

Hong Kong was rocked back on its heels shortly after the resumption when Izatullah bowled Haq (2) and trapped James Atkinson (1) LBW to leave them at 21-3 after 10 overs. A 55-run partnership between Robbie Bacon and skipper Courtney Kruger lifted the score to 76 after 22 overs. Bacon's innings was pure class and he was dismissed 3 runs short of what would have been his second half-century of the tournament.

Nicholas Lau joined Kruger at the crease but the two batsmen struggled to get the bowling away as they concentrated on reviving the innings. The two batted for the best part of 10 overs but could only move the score along a further 14 runs. Lau looked out of sorts and his failure to score put pressure on Kruger. The pressure eventually told as Kruger was bowled for 21 trying to force Syed Khan away. Lau was then bowled 3 balls later - his 2 runs coming from 31 balls.

With the run-rate increasing dramatically, Ashish Gadhia once again took up the challenge with the remaining batsmen. Zuiad Khan smacked a six and a four to give the run-rate a boost and Sajid Khan kept the momentum going with 3 boundaries of his own. With 30 runs required off the last 4 overs, Gadhia was unfortunately run-out in a mix-up with Zafaran Ali. Ali and last man John Bacon did their best to score the winning runs but their efforts weren't enough to see them home. Bacon was bowled from the last ball of the 50th over to bring the match to an end with Hong Kong still 18 runs from their target.

Izatullah Khan claimed 4-19 for Afghanistan to win the Man of the Match award.

[Scorecard - Hong Kong Under-19s v. Afghanistan Under-19s]

For Hong Kong, it was another close match that had slipped from their grasp. At least the team proved they can mix it with one of the best teams in the competition, but unfortunately their failure to win leaves them relying on other favourable results to remain in the top flight of ACC Under-19 cricket.

Qatar did Hong Kong a big favour today by beating Kuwait in another tight match and Hong Kong will be hoping Afghanistan can do the same tomorrow. If Afghanistan win then the Kuwaitis will finish bottom of the group and Hong Kong will play-off for 7th and 8th places against the 4th place team from Group A. They will also remain in the Elite Group for the next tournament. If Kuwait surprise Afghanistan then the outcome will come down to run-rate calculations. Hong Kong however have a better run-rate than Kuwait and also were the winners of their head-to-head clash, so they should be confident of staying in the top flight.

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