Asia Cup 2022: Till The 13th Over We Were Amazing With The Ball: Nizakat Khan
India made one change to their starting lineup for their second group game in Dubai, resting Hardik Pandya and substituting him with Rishabh Pant. Nizakat Khan, the captain of Hong Kong, chose to bowl in the match.
Opening batsman KL Rahul was the centre of attention when India came out to bat.
The innings was essential for Rahul to regain his composure after being taken off for a golden duck in India’s opening game against Pakistan.
Rahul did play in the middle for a while and scored 36 runs, but he scarcely seemed like a batter in a T20 game. Before being dismissed, he needed 39 balls to get to 36. After 13 overs, India was battling at 94/2 when he was removed.
We Would Like To Improve On Our Death Over Bowling: Nizakat Khan
The innings received a major lift from Suryakumar Yadav, who replaced Rahul in the batting order, and smashed an unbeaten 68 off just 26 balls to help the team reach 192/2 in 20 overs.
Even Virat Kohli scored a half-century and made 59 off 44 balls and got into some kind of rhythm in his comeback tournament.
Rohit Sharma, the captain, showed his tenacity by scoring 21 runs off just 13 balls before being removed.
Despite the early wicket, it might have been Hong Kong’s powerplay when Babar Hayat went after the Indian attack.
However, the penultimate ball of the powerplay resulted in a wicket due to a run-out. After six overs, they scored 51-2.
Following the powerplay, India reduced the run flow. Only 14 runs were scored by Hong Kong in the four overs following the powerplay, which was simply insufficient. Eventually, they lost the game by 40 runs.
After the game, Nizakat Khan said, “I think the way we started with the ball, we were amazing till 13th over, fielding was good too. But we slipped after that, especially in the death overs, but the way Suryakumar batted, it was good to watch. I think it [Asia Cup] was a big opportunity for all the boys. I know we were away for a long time, boys were playing with injuries, and credit goes to them, very proud of them. I think we’re going to sit down tomorrow, we will look at our death bowling, we will improve in the next game.”
