Hong Kong steamroll Nepal, enter ACC final

Cricket in Hong Kong enjoyed perhaps its greatest moment to date, qualifying for both next year's Asia Cup and Friday's final of the ACC Trophy with a convincing 179 run win over Nepal in Sharjah on Tuesday.

Hong Kong recovered from a disastrous early start to score 268-3 from its 50 overs, before removing Nepal for 89 in just 25 overs in the semi-final at the Sharjah Stadium.

"I am very pleased," Hong Kong coach, Adam Hollioake said. "That's what we came here to do - firstly qualify for the Asia Cup and make the final of the ACC Trophy. We did the simple things well."

Captain, Stewart Brew, was equally happy.

"It is the best Hong Kong team we have put out and I am really proud of the way the boys have played."

Hong Kong was in early trouble, at 11-2 in the sixth over after the dismissals of openers, Saleem Malik (3) and Charaparambil Manoj (4). However, Hollioake said he was unconcerned.

"It was very early in the game and we tried to attack in first 15 overs and this time it didn't come off."

After taking 30.3 overs to pass 100, the Hong Kong batsmen, led by Rahul Sharma, who remained unbeaten on 145 not out, thrashed 168 in the last 20 overs to set Nepal a daunting target.

Tight bowling, backed up by what was at that stage, sound ground fielding, put pressure on the Hong Kong openers, who were looking to attack in the first 15 overs.

Malik, who had uncharacteristically scored three from 12 balls, was stranded after hesitating when looking for a single and was run out by Kiran Agrawal after trying to return to his crease.

The situation worsened when Manoj advanced down the wicket to Mehboob Alam and got an inside edge on to his leg stump.

Nepal to that point, were bowling a good line, and fielding tightly.

Hong Kong's most experienced two batsmen, captain, Stewart Brew, and Sharma, were now at the crease and they proceeded to patiently repair the innings with singles and the occasional boundary.

From about the 10th over, Nepal's intensity seemed to drop with the occasional misfield and wide creeping into their play.

Without taking risks, Brew and Sharma accelerated the run-rate, doubling the score from 15-2 in the eighth over to 32-2 in the eleventh.

Brew played the dominant role as the partnership developed, picking off singles with shots to fielders and waiting for the loose ball to hit.

Sharma played more of a support role to Brew initially, scoring 19 to Brew's 29 when the 50 partnership came up.

Opening bowler, Raju Khadka, had bowled good line in his first spell conceding 15 from six overs, while the quickish Alam took 6-1-18-1, including Manoj's wicket.

The tempo of the innings began to increase with the introduction of left arm spinner, Pawan Luniya, into the attack. Luniya bowled a good line and length but had little on his deliveries to test the Hong Kong batsmen, and gradually the run-rate increased.

Also, Nepal's ground fielding, which earlier had been near faultless, began to feature the odd misfield.

Brew went on to score his 50, including two sixes and fours fours from 85 balls.

On 63, the Queensland-born veteran played a shot totally in contrast to the rest of his innings when he advanced to smash Sharraf out of the ground, and was stumped by Ganesh Thaku, with the score at 135-3.

The entire nature of the Hong Kong innings was changed when Alam dropped a sitter at the long off boundary. Rather than Hong Kong having two new batsmen starting their innings', the chance was the signal for Sharma to launch an assault on the innocuous Nepalese attack.

Sharma had been joined by Mark Davies, and together the pair reached 50 from 41 balls. Sharma, a former Ranji Trophy player, reached his century soon after, from 124 balls, with three sixes and five fours. He had not scored a six before the chance from Alam, but would score six sixes in the last 10 overs in addition to 11 boundaries. Hong Kong belted 114 runs in that time. Sharma scored 88 runs after the dropped catch.

Khadka, who had earlier been economical, had 40 runs from his last four overs, while Das, who was perhaps Nepal's best bowler, had 38 taken from his last two, including 25 from his last.

Alex Davies (36 n.o) batted well to support Sharma during their 133 run partnership.

According to Nepal captain, Pewan Agrawal, the top order batsmen didn't play to the team plan. ``At the lunch break we said that we should play positively but bat out the 50 overs. The players threw their wickets away," Agrawal said. "I think they got carried away by the occasion."

Paresh Lohani (0) edged a ball from Brew, bowling medium-pace, and apart from an over from paceman, Mohammad Zubair, who again had trouble controlling his inswingers, Nepal lost regular wickets.

Zubair's first over, the second of the innings, stretched to 16 deliveries, due to eight wides and two no-balls.

It was the biggest 'partnership' of the Nepalese innings, as its batsmen chased quick runs and threw away their wickets.

Extras (26) was Nepal's highest scorer, with middle-order batsman and all-rounder, Raju Khadka (18) hitting two fours in his 15 ball innings.