Asia Cup 2022: IND vs HK Match Preview, Match 04

Asia Cup 2022: IND vs HK Match Preview, Match 04. Defending champions India will face Hong Kong on 31st August, Wednesday at 7:30 pm IST after beating Pakistan by 5 wickets in their opening Asia Cup 2022 fixture. Hardik Pandya’s all-around brilliance powered India to a thrilling five-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in an Asia Cup 2022 game on Sunday, 28th August 2022.

Hardik Pandya ended with figures of 3/25 in 4 overs while restricting Pakistan to 147 in 19.5 overs and then smashed 33 off 17 balls with the winning six in the last over bowled by left-arm spinner Mohammed Nawaz.

Ravindra Jadeja contributed with 35 off 29 balls. When India bowled, senior seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar had the best figures of 4 for 26. When India chased, former skipper Virat Kohli scored 35 off 34 balls. Naseem Shah was Pakistan’s best bowler with figures of 2/27.

Asia Cup 2022: India 148 for 5 (Kohli 35, Jadeja 35, Hardik 33*, Nawaz 3-33, Naseem 2-27) beat Pakistan 147 all out (Rizwan 43, Iftikhar 28, Dahani 16*, Bhuvneshwar 4-26, Hardik 3-25) by five wickets

Asia Cup 2022: IND vs HK Match Preview, Match 04

Hong Kong finished above Kuwait, UAE, and Singapore in the qualification round. Hong Kong played against Kuwait, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Singapore in the Asia Cup 2022 Qualifier. They won against all three teams and pipped Kuwait for the top spot. They were also part of the last Asia Cup in 2018 and were in the same group as India and Pakistan. Incredibly, they will once again join the same two teams in the coming edition in Group A.

India and Hong Kong have faced each other in 2 matches in ODI. Out of these 2 games, India has won both the games whereas Hong Kong hasn’t come out victorious even once. Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath put up 174 for the opening stand in a chase of 286 but India’s bowlers pulled things back after Shikhar Dhawan’s 127 had set things up in their previous Asia Cup 2018 encounter in the ODI format.

Shikhar Dhawan’s 14th ODI century had carried India to 285 for 7, with Hong Kong’s bowlers negating a powerful start to allow only 48 runs in the last ten overs. They carried that buoyant momentum with them when they came out to bat, with openers Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath putting on a 174-run partnership, the highest for Hong Kong in ODIs.

India, after being inserted, was going great guns, courtesy of a 116-run stand between Ambati Rayudu (60) and Shikhar Dhawan (127). The latter got to a brilliant ton and when he was out there, India looked like crossing 300.

Debutant pacer Khaleel Ahmed got rid of Nizakat Khan who missed out on a well-deserved ton. He finished with a three-for along with spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who ran through the middle order. He too ended with three wickets to his name. Shardul Thakur had an off day, conceding 10.25 runs/over.

Asia Cup 2018: India 285 for 7 (Dhawan 127, Rayudu 60, Kinchit 3-39, Ehsan Khan 2-65) beat Hong Kong 259 for 8 (Nizakat 92, Rath 73, Chahal 3-46, Khaleel 3-48, Kuldeep 2-42) by 26 runs

In their previous ODI encounter in Asia Cup 2008, MS Dhoni and his team marked the 25th anniversary of India’s World Cup triumph with an emphatic 256-run win over Hong Kong in Karachi to begin their Asia Cup campaign in style.

India rested Yuvraj Singh and Ishant Sharma for this game, but they weren’t missed much as Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni helped themselves to centuries against a hapless bowling attack after Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had built a platform, before spinner, Piyush Chawla flummoxed the Hong Kong batsmen.

Asia Cup 2008: India 374 for 4 (Dhoni 109*, Raina 101, Sehwag 78) beat Hong Kong 118 (Chawla 4-23) by 256 runs