Hayat 78 sets up comfortable Hong Kong win

An aggressive half-century from Babar Hayat set Hong Kong up for a 39-run Duckworth-Lewis win in a rain-affected match against Kenya in Nairobi. The win moved Hong Kong up to 11 points from eight games, leaving them a point adrift of joint table-toppers Papua New Guinea and Netherlands.

Rain delayed the start of play and forced the match to be reduced to 31 overs a side. Sent in to bat, Hong Kong lost Kinchit Shah with only two runs on the board, before Hayat joined the opener Christopher Carter in a 119-run second-wicket partnership. Both then fell in the space of eight balls, to the left-arm seamer Lucas Oluoch: Hayat for 78 off 68 balls (6x4, 4x6) and Carter for 41 off 63 (4x4, 1x6). Hong Kong lost Anshuman Rath soon after as well, and were 148 for 4 in 25.1 overs when rain came down again.

That interruption caused the match to be shortened further, with Kenya set a revised target of 173 in 25 overs. They made an excellent start, courtesy a 79-run opening stand between Irfan Karim and Alex Obanda, but fell away thereafter, losing all ten wickets for the addition of only 54 runs. Left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed, offspinner Ehsan Khan and medium-pacer Tanveer Ahmed picked up three wickets each.