Omani bed salesman Ahmed gives hosts HK a wake-up call

Hong Kong are in danger of missing out on their own party after bed and mattress salesman Sultan Ahmed guided Oman to a three-wicket victory, leaving the hosts still seeking their first win in the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament.

With a spring in his step, Ahmed, 30, walked in to bat and set about repairing the damage with Oman on 109 for four, having lost skipper Hemal Mehta, a century-maker from the previous game, as well as opener Hemin Desai, who had launched the chase for 266 with a blitzing 62.

'I didn't panic. I knew we had enough batsmen who could do the job,' Ahmed said after his match-winning, unbeaten 70. 'My task was to keep one end going and I knew if we could bat out the 50 overs, we would win.'

The Karachi-born player found a solid partner in Vaibhav Wategaonkar (68) and the pair added 80 runs before another mini-collapse, spurred by Hong Kong opening bowler Irfan Ahmed, saw panic creep in. But an unbeaten, match-winning liaison of 71 with Amir Ali (41), who lived a charmed life, being dropped three times, saw Oman home.

'This win will give the boys huge confidence. It should put us back on track,' said Oman coach Iqbal Sikander. Counterpart Charlie Burke, meanwhile, was wondering what had gone wrong for the second successive day.

The home team have made their own bed, and it is a difficult one. To reach Saturday's final they have to win all three remaining games against Denmark, Italy and Papua New Guinea, and also hope other results go their way.

ICC statistics point to the host nation at the last six tournaments having advanced to the next group. Hong Kong seemed to be bucking the trend as they tumbled to their second straight defeat at Kowloon Cricket Club in as many days, leaving them at the bottom of the standings and the only team without a win.

It was a carbon copy of Saturday's seven-wicket loss to the United States. Once again Hong Kong were put into bat and then dismissed for a below-par score - 266.

Hussain Butt top scored with 81 but a lack of substantial partnerships hurt Hong Kong, who were well on course to a 280-plus total until they lost three wickets in the batting powerplay. 'Once again we were about 20-30 runs short,' Burke said. 'We had the opportunity to go past 300 but we lacked big partnerships and no two batsmen, when they were set, went on to make big scores.'

But all is not lost if Hong Kong can learn their lessons before the tournament resumes after today's rest day.

Papua New Guinea remain the only unbeaten team after defeating Italy by 32 runs at Hong Kong Cricket Club. The US, winners over Hong Kong on the opening day, lost by 30 runs to Denmark at Mission Road.

'Every game is a must-win game for us from now on,' Burke said.