Hong Kong bounce back to thrash Kuwait by 138 runs

Hong Kong bounced back to form today by thrashing Kuwait by 138 runs in their second outing at the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup. In doing so they went some way towards burying the ghosts of yesterday's stunning loss to Qatar and rejuvenating their ACC Under-19 Elite Cup aspirations.

Hong Kong, playing an unchanged eleven from the previous day, won the toss and elected to bat on a Bayuemas Oval wicket that looked full of runs.

Hong Kong got off to a solid start and were handily placed at 54-1 after 11 overs. The scored moved along to 107-2 after 21 overs with the top order laying a solid foundation. Robbie Bacon provided the cornerstone of the innings with a well struck half-century but he lost his wicket shortly after bringing up his 50 to leave Hong Kong on 138-4. The good momentum was maintained by the middle order and Hong Kong was nicely placed to push on to a big total at 193-5 after 37 overs. A couple of quick wickets, including skipper Courtney Kruger for 46, stalled their progress momentarily but a late flourish lifted them to 245 all out from 47.4 overs.

Abdul Rehman Liaqat, the ninth bowler used by Kuwait, was the effective as he mopped up the Hong Kong tail to claim figures of 4-25. The bowlers were rather wayward as Kuwait conceded a whopping 40 wides.

The Kuwaitis were pegged back in the opening stages of their innings as Irfan Ahmed and John Bacon ran amuck to leave them reeling at 40-4 after 10 overs. Hong Kong weren't going to let another game slip from there grasp and they continued to apply the pressure on the Kuwaiti batsmen. Unlike Qatar, the Kuwaitis weren't able to find a battler in their ranks and they crumbled to the spin of Nadeem Ahmed. Kuwait had slipped to 78-6 by the 25 over mark and 82-8 after 27 overs. Hong Kong mopped up the tail shortly afterwards with Kuwait all out for 107 from 33.4 overs.

For Hong Kong, Nadeem Ahmed bowled an immaculate spell, claiming the impressive figures of 10-4-10-3. John Bacon and Irfan Ahmed were effective with the new ball, grabbing a brace of wickets each while Robbie Bacon and Zafaran Ali claimed one wicket apiece.

Hong Kong's Robbie Bacon was named Man of the Match.

This was a more confident and commanding display by the Hong Kong team and coach Lal Jayasinghe will be delighted with the improvements shown after yesterday's effort.

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

In other matches played today, Afghanistan secured their second win in Group B when they beat Qatar by 40 runs. In Group A action, UAE had little trouble against Thailand, thrashing them by 10 wickets, while Singapore overcame Oman by 55 runs to register their first win of the tournament.

Hong Kong's next match is against hosts Malaysia on Thursday, 23rd August 2007 at the Selangor Turf Club.

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