Kenya edge Hong Kong in low-scoring thriller

Hong Kong received a timely reality check of how tough their task will be to qualify for the ICC World T20 Cup when they were narrowly beaten by Kenya in the last warm-up game before the start of the qualifying tournament on Friday.

After demolishing the Danish bowlers in the first warm-up match, Hong Kong's batting order failed to fire against the Kenyans and they could only manage a total of 99 all out in their 20 overs. Only four Hong Kong batsmen registered double-figure scores, with Irfan Ahmed's 23 off 17 balls the best at the top of the order.

Hong Kong's position had looked quite sound as they reached 60-3 in tenth over, but a clatter of wickets saw them slip to 64-6 in the space of 10 balls. Veteran Steve Tikolo was the destroyer for Kenya as he picked three wickets in his four over spell while conceding just 13 runs. Hong Kong's lower order batsmen did their best to scramble a few hard-earned runs but a score of 99 was never going to be competitive.

But Hong Kong's new-found fighting spirit came to the fore and they made the Kenyan batsmen work hard for every single run. A tight opening spell by Moner Ahmed saw Kenya restricted to 31-3 from their first 9 overs. Hong Kong kept chipping away at the Kenyan batting line-up and with four balls remaining in the match, Hong Kong looked set to snatch an unlikely victory with Kenya on 95-7. But number 9 batsman Nehemiah Odhiambo had other ideas as he hit two fours in 3 balls to break Hong Kong hearts.

Earlier, Irfan Karim had scored a run-a-ball 37 to lay the foundation for Kenya's run chase while Thomas Odoyo chipped in with an important 15*. Moner Ahmed was the best of the Hong Kong bowlers with 3-15 from 3.5 overs while Nadeem Ahmed claimed 2-17 from his four over spell.

Match Summary: Hong Kong 99 from 20 overs (Irfan Ahmed 23; Steve Tikolo 3-13) lost to Kenya 103-7 from 19.5 overs (Irfan Karim 37; Moner Ahmed 3-15) by 7 wkts [Full Scorecard]

Hong Kong will look to shake off that loss as they start the tournament proper on Friday against Italy. The Italians have had a mixed bag of results in their two warm-up games, with a narrow win over Bermuda and a heavy loss to Netherlands.