Hong Kong shocked yet another associate giant in Afghanistan after beating Ireland earlier, in a last ball thriller to book a spot in the World T20 in India next year. Riding on Mark Chapman’s belligerent 40 of 25 deliveries, the Asian side chased down the 162 runs set by Afghanistan.The team that got its associate status way back in 1969, has turned things around at last to become a dangerous outfit at the Associate level.
It is the first win for the side against Afghanistan in a T20 game, and they did so when it mattered the most. Earlier Afghanistan won the toss and batted on a flat wicket and the decision was well justified as Mohammad Shahzad and Nawroz Mangal got them off to a rollicking start, although Shahzad fell for just 20. Hong Kong struck regularly, but that didn’t prevent the Afghan batsmen from playing their shots as the scoreboard moved steadily and finally read a 162/7 at the end of 20 overs. Nawroz Mangal and skipper Ashgar Stanikzai made notable contributions with 53 and 29 respectively, whereas Hasseem Amjad was the pick of the Hong Kong bowlers, as he returned with 3/28 in his four overs.
The Hong Kong batsmen began reasonably well, with the experienced wicket Keeper batsman Jamie Atkinson anchoring the chase, as he added a 51 run stand for the second wicket with Nizakat Khan, the chase nevertheless was poorly paced with run rate mounting as the overs went by and the dismissal of a well set Atkinson only made it worse in the 15th over. But Mark Chapman played some typical ‘T20’ cricket which included some audacious shots like the scoops and the reverse paddles, as he along with Baba Hayat guided their side to a famous T20 win to savour.
