Hong Kong survives to fight another day

Hong Kong has survived to fight another day in the ACC Under-19 Elite group. Hong Kong got the favourable results they needed as both Qatar and Afghanistan beat Kuwait to keep the Kuwaitis winless in the tournament with no points. A win for Kuwait in either match would have set up a nerve-tingling situation for Hong Kong with run-rate calculations determining the final group placings.

As it stands, Kuwait finish bottom of Group B and they will now face Thailand in a match for the wooden spoon. Whatever the outcome, both teams will be relegated to the ACC Under-19 Challenge group for the 2008 tournament.

Hong Kong will face Oman in a play-off for 7th/8th places, with the match to be played at Club Aman on Tuesday, 28th August 2007.

Group A winners Nepal will face Malaysia in one semi-final while the Group B winners Afghanistan will take on UAE in the other. Singapore and Qatar will contest the 5th/6th place play-off.

The two semi-finals and the 9th/10th Play-off match will be played on Monday, 27th August. The Play-offs for 3rd/4th, 5th/6th and 7th/8th will be played on Tuesday, 28th August while the final, between the winners of the two semi-finals, will be played on Wednesday, 29th August.

The winner of the tournament, or the losing finalist if Malaysia is the winner, will go on to play the winner of an equivalent tournament being played in Europe, with the winner of that match earning a place in the next Under-19 World Cup to be played in Malaysia in 2008.

In a further development, the ACC has announced that the best cricketers from each country, as selected by the ACC Development Officers following the completion of the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup tournament, will form a 14-member squad to tour Sri Lanka in November 2007. The tour will include 5 one-day matches against local clubs and the SLC Development side.

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