Omarzai hits Afghanistan's fastest T20I fifty as they crush Hong Kong

There a contest between man and nature to see who was hotter and in the end, try as the elements could, they couldn't match Azmatullah Omarzai's fire. Even in 41°C heat, he burned brighter, scoring Afghanistan's fastest T20I fifty and just kept going from there.

Omarzai was responsible for one of two blink-and-you'll-miss-it run-outs, which coming on the back of a Hong Kong fielding performance that included three dropped catches, was cricket working a little too hard to highlight the gulf between the two sides. Full Member Afghanistan made 188 for 6. It was 94 too many for their Associate nation opposition.

Thirty-five legal balls between boundaries Two wickets though.

Hong Kong are 43 for 5 after 10 overs. Afghanistan at the same stage were 77 for 2. This game is very much theirs now, especially with Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and AM Ghazanfar having six overs still up their sleeve.

Afghanistan doing their bit to keep the game competitive here with back-to-back dropped catches.

First, Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal get into a mix-up about who would take the chance as they run in from mid-on and cover and in the end neither seems to have got a hand to it. Hong Kong could've been 19 for 4. AM Ghazanfar should've doubled his T20I wickets tally, tricky spinner more in the mold of Mujeeb than Rashid. Kalhan Challu survives (2 off 5)

With the score still on 19, it's Babar Hayar's turn to get lucky, a top edge going straight to Karim Janat at deep third and popping straight out.

As he watches all this happen, Azmat gets a chance to set the record straight, when Challu taps the ball down the pitch and makes the mistake of running with the shot before seeing where it goes. Azmat picks the ball up, nails the direct hit at the batter's end and balance is restored. Afghanistan have two blink-and-you're-gone run-outs.

He's magic with the ball too.

Wicket in his first over to follow a record-breaking half-century for Azmatullah Omarzai. No doubts about this one, with Zeeshan Ali caught off a leading edge at mid-on

Nizakat Khan goes for 0 off 0 in the third over. Rashid Khan nails a direct hit at the non-strikers' end even as Babar and Nizakat were spending too much time thinking about a single into the off side. There's the gulf between the two sides. Hong Kong dropped three catches. Afghanistan's fielders manufacture a wicket where there was none.

Tough start for Hong Kong facing Fazalhaq Farooqi who does what he is known for with the new ball - getting it to deck around. Rath is lured to play away from his body and is ruled caught behind by umpire Sharma. He seems to want to go for DRS. His partner Zeeshan though convinces him otherwise. There was a noise and Zeeshan might have heard that and said no to DRS. Or maybe Rath ran out of time. Replays confirm Rath's been dealt a rough hand. Plenty of daylight between bat and ball and strangely a spike on UltraEdge with the ball well past the bat and only thin air around it.

Sediqullah Atal and Azmatullah Omarzai struck half-centuries each to carry Afghanistan to 188 for 6 in the opening match of the men's T20 Asia Cup 2025. Hong Kong had their moments, their spinners in particular harnessing slow conditions well enough to frustrate their more pedigreed opponents. But the gulf in class eventually showed as Yasin Murtaza's side dropped catches and committed misfields to hurt their own chances.

Sediqullah has brought up each of this three T20I fifties in his last four innings, and as well as he looked out in the middle, standing tall at the crease and largely coping with the lack of pace, he benefited from three missed chances. A man who could've been dismissed in the very first over in the end batted through to finish on 73 off 52.

Murtaza was involved in all three lives Sediqullah got - twice dropping the catch himself and once having to watch it go down off his own bowling. He did the best he could to make up for it, the three Hong Kong spinners giving the ball such little pace but so much air that this game looked straight out of the 90s. As such, the more modern day T20 batter wasn't able to adjust. Murtaza and Kinchit Shah bowled in tandem for the five overs between the 10th and the 14th and gave away only 29 runs.

Afghanistan were 119 for 4 after 16 overs and saw the return of pace as an opportunity not to be missed. Atal and Omarzai targeted Ayush Shukla and Ateeq Iqbal. Sixty nine runs came off the last four overs with Omarzai raising his first T20I half-century, which was Afghanistan's fastest in the format (20 balls). From the simple clear the front leg slog to the cheeky ramp past the keeper, the Afghanistan allrounder has shown impressive range on a difficult batting pitch and finished with a strike rate of 252.38.

Having been smothered by spin through the middle overs, Afghanistan sensed the return of pace as a moment to seize and seize it they did.

They were 119 for 4 after 16 overs. They've smashed 58 runs in the next 16 balls with Azmatullah raising his first T20I half-century. From the simple clear the front leg slog to the cheeky ramp past the keeper, the Afghanistan allrounder has shown impressive range on a difficult batting pitch.

Had a life at 4 off 3. Got another on 45 off 37. Both catches dropped by Yasim Murtaza the Hong Kong captain, who to his credit has bowled beautifully. Left-arm spin at speeds that feel almost unnatural in the modern game. A 72kph delivery surprised Atal so badly that he was well into his shot and the ball practically ballooned up to Murtaza, who just couldn't jump high enough. Now Atal has fifty and there's five overs left in the innings

Atal's faced only 14 of the 36 balls since the end of the powerplay and he's struggled - scored only nine runs. The pitch is slow. Hong Kong have deployed their spinners. Atal's tried to throw them off by using his feet, but it hasn't quite worked and Nabi's wicket might complicate matters given he's the set batter and Afghanistan can't afford to lose him to a rash stroke.

They do, however, lose Naib to one. Kinchit bowling right-arm offbreak but around the wicket makes the angle across the right-hander work for him. Secures a mis-hit with Naib slogging with the turn but against the angle.

Kinchit Shah strikes with his first ball. Born in Mumbai. Played for Hong Kong since the early 2010s. And now here he is in the Asia Cup 2025 producing a key breakthrough. Hong Kong were looking a little listless, a little bit like a team who is the underdog. That wicket might shake them awake again.

It is only the 16th time in 128 T20I innings that Mohammad Nabi has batted No. 4. The decision to push him up was obviously a response to being on the back foot so early against an Associate team and hoping to leverage his experience to get Afghanistan back into a strong position.

Nabi started slowly - 5 off 10 - getting his bearings on a slow pitch and now he's in full flow - 31 off 23 after nine overs. He's overtaken Atal.

Sediqullah Atal looks a real good player. Stays nice and tall in his set-up, seems competent playing shots off both the front foot and the back foot, and crucially, he's been able to cope with the lack of pace in Abu Dhabi. He's only 24, but he's already showing signs of what players more experienced than he is are known for. The bit between the ears.

Atal is 26 off 17 with five fours at the end of the powerplay when the other end has contributed only 14 off 19 balls with one six.

They dropped one in the first over. But they've been catching everything else. A very cool take behind the stumps ends Ibrahim Zadran's innings before it could gather any momentum. Zeeshan Ali hands Ateeq Iqbal his first wicket of this Asia Cup. Good call from Hong Kong to have the keeper up to the stumps. Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott is already scribbling away on his notebook.

38 (27), 7, 8, 40 (38), 5 and now 8.

Gurbaz has not made the impact he is known for and that is largely because every one of those innings has come in conditions that have been either slow, or turning. A batter who likes the ball coming onto the bat and hitting on the up has not adjusted to the challenge that these UAE pitches have posed.

Hong Kong do well, taking a drop in the first over on the chin and still being up for the next opportunity that came their way.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz, whose strike rate was lower than usual in the tri-series against UAE and Pakistan, and Sediqullah Atal open the innings for Afghanistan. Right-arm quick Ayush Shukla has the new ball.

Even at this early stage, it becomes clear just how big of a gap there is between Afghanistan and Hong Kong. Their captain Murtaza misses a straightforward catch at first slip. Atal gets a life on 4 off 3. And one of the three boundaries in the over is the result of a misfield at short fine.

Smaller teams can compete with the biggest ones if they can get these one-percenters right, but getting them right requires a lot of training, a lot of time, a lot of investment that is not really possible when they are almost semi-professionals.

It is very warm in Abu Dhabi. The sun's set and night looms but the temperature is a stifling 41 degrees celsius. A round of applause for the players daring to get out there and play the format of cricket with the shortest duration but the highest intensity. The crowd certainly doesn't care for it. There is barely anyone at the ground.

Rashid Khan says in T20 the toss doesn't matter as much as giving yourself the best chance. By his own logic, he thinks batting first in Abu Dhabi is the way to go because that's what he's done when the coin fell in his favour. Afghanistan are in a run where they are playing six T20Is in 13 days and that's resulted in a slight reshuffling of personnel. Rashid confirmed one change from the team that stumbled badly in the tri-series final against Pakistan just two days ago, with batter Darwish Rasooli stepping out for allrounder Gulbadin Naib.

The pitch, which hasn't been used for T20s all year, has 3.5mm of grass on it, which is unusual on this ground. Hong Kong might have taken that into considering during their pre-match plans because their captain Yasim Murtaza wanted to bowl first. He also invited the world to keep an eye on 22-year-old batter Kalhan Challu, whose power-hitting has rescued the team from difficult situations as recently as July against Samoa.

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sediqullah Atal, Ibrahim Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan (capt), Noor Ahmad, AM Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Hong Kong: Zeeshan Ali (wk), Babar Hayat, Anshuman Rath, Kalhan Challu, Nizakat Khan, Aizaz Khan, Kinchit Shah, Yasim Murtaza (capt), Ayush Shukla, Ateeq Iqbal, Ehsan Khan

Hong Kong coach and former Sri Lanka batter Kausal Silva spoke eloquently about the challenges of being an Associate team and the importance of doing well on these big stages.

"You don't have the same resources. Sometimes you only get training at certain times of day, and often only indoors. But that's the reality. We can't let it become an excuse."

Silva has challenged his players to - as the cliche goes - control the controllables.

"If we want to go on a journey to regain ODI status [Hong Kong lost it in 2018, soon after that year's Asia Cup], we have to change our mindset. No one is going to hand us anything."