Hong Kong beat China by 179 runs in ACC Trophy Elite warm-up match

Hong Kong have beaten China by 179 runs in an international friendly match. The match, arranged as a warm-up game for the Hong Kong team prior to its departure for the ACC Trophy Elite 2010 in Kuwait, was played at played at Kai Tak Cricket Ground in cool and overcast conditions.

Hong Kong batted first and posted a respectable total of 258 in 47.1 overs with Vikash Vaswani Gope top scoring with 50 from 59 balls. Useful contributions were also made by Roy Lamsam (38), Irfan Ahmed (45) and Waqas Barkat (30) but none of the Hong Kong batsmen were able to push on to make a really big score after making good starts. Nine Hong Kong batsmen perished to catches playing mistimed shorts, while Nadeem Ahmed was run-out after a mix-up with Waqas. For China, opening bowler Wang Lei claimed the best figures with 2-31 from eight overs. Li Juan (2-45), Fu Xianchao (2-66) and Zhang Qirui (2-33) also claimed two wickets while Zhang Yufei was the other wicket taker.

In reply, China had no answer to the Hong Kong opening attack of Aizaz Khan and Asif Khan and the contest was all but over by the end of the 10th over with China reeling at 20-4. A face saving 36 from the China coach and former Pakistani international Rashid Khan lifted China to an eventual total of 79 from 33.4 overs but the other China batsmen could only muster 33 runs between them. For Hong Kong, Aizaz Khan claimed 3-3 from his five over spell while Najeeb Amar cleaned up the tail to finish with 3-4 from 2.4 overs. Nadeem Ahmed also picked up a pair of wickets while Asif Khan, Irfan Ahmed and Ilyas Gull claimed one each.

Scorecard: Hong Kong v. China

Despite the wide margin of victory, there is still plenty to work on for Hong Kong, especially in the batting department, before they face much sterner opposition at the ACC Trophy Elite tournament in Kuwait. Hong Kong's first match will be against Nepal on 31st March 2010.

Related Link: Hong Kong at the ACC Trophy Elite 2010