Atkinson, Barkat shine as Hong Kong win SL opener

Hong Kong got their pre-tournament tour to Sri Lanka off to a promising start with a thumping victory over a Ganda District XI in Colombo on 20th March 2013.

Batting first, Hong Kong amassed 5-220 in their 20 overs with skipper Jamie Atkinson leading with a fine 85 while vice-captain Waqas Barkat struck a quickfire 59.

In reply, the Ganda District XI were restricted to 9-107 off their 20 overs with Tanwir Afzal, Waqas Barkat, Nadeem Ahmed and new boy Manjinder Singh picking up two wickets each.

The Hong Kong team will play 3 or 4 warm-up games in Sri Lanka before heading on to the Nepal capital city of Kathmandu to play in the ACC Twenty20 Elite Cup 2013. They will hope to go one better than their 2011campaign at the same venue, where they lost to Afghanistan in a nail-biting final by 7 runs.