UAE vs Hong Kong – Match Report

UAE won the toss and elected to bat

Hong Kong began their account at the 2019 ICC Women’s Asia Qualifier against the UAE at the Asian Institute of Technology.

Hong Kong’s opening bowlers Mariko Hill and Maryam Bibi put the pressure on early against the UAE’s batters. Some relaxed running from the UAE resulted in Chaya Mughal getting run out from some sharp work from both Jasmine Titmuss at square leg and Jen Davies behind the stumps.

This brought Kavisha Kumari to the crease to join Esha Oza. Both were able to form a partnership and took then UAE to 35/1 after 4 overs as Jasmine Titmuss came on to relieve Bibi and Betty Chan for Hill. Hong Kong continued to rotate their bowlers with Kary Chan coming on, which proved effective as Esha Oza drove early and was well caught by Titmuss at Extra Cover. Her spin twin Betty felt she had to respond and did so the very next over getting Kumari out at mid off with Hill moving to her left to dive for the catch.

New batters Chamani Senervirathne and Udeni Kuruppuarachi came in with the score at 44/3 after the 6 over Powerplay and looked to continue the UAE momentum. Both batters looked to continue their positive approach to the innings, however Betty Chan had other ideas and Kuruppuarachi found Titmuss at Deep Mid On.

At 60/4 at the halfway stage, UAE needed to build a partnership. Seneviratne and Shubha Venkatraman worked to stabilize the Emirati innings but again failed to build significantly with another great catch from Hill running back from Deep Mid On once again off the bowling of Ruchitha Venkatesh.

This brought UAE captain Humaira Tasneem to the crease to partner Venkatraman. Marina Lamplough, Pull To and Ruchitha Venkatesh looked to finish off the innings and looked ready for the hunt as Pull To saw off Venkatraman as she mistimed a loft only to be caught at Mid On by Lamplough.

Neha Sharma and Tasneem kept up the fight but not for long as the skipper was adjudged LBW off Jasmine Titmuss. With UAE at 98/7 after 18 overs, Kary Chan was brought back on to bowl the penultimate over with Titmuss finishing off the innings. UAE finished with 106/8 off their 20 overs.

Hong Kong opened with Yasmin Daswani and Bella Poon against the bowling of Chaya Mughal and Subha Venkatraman. Hong Kong looked to steadily accumulate towards their target of 107. Poon and Daswani were watchful carefully watching the first few overs as UAE looked to bowl tight as possible. Poon looked to hit anything in her area with extreme intent but unfortunately, she cut one straight to Short Gully off Srinivasan.

Jenefer Davies then came to the crease join Daswani and continued to rotate strike. Both Mughal and Venkatraman continued to bowl out the powerplay overs resulting in the wicket of Daswani who was run out after poor communication with Davies. After 6 overs Hong Kong found themselves 15/2. Kary Chan joined Davies at the crease.

Chamani Senevirathne and Esha Oza came into the bowling attack looking to apply dot ball pressure on the Hong Kong batting pair. Davies and Chan continued to build, albeit slowly, as Oza and Senevirathne continued to try bowl tight lines. Senevirathne got her breakthrough as Davies missed a pull shot and was given LBW.

Hong Kong still had a lot to do as Mariko Hill and Chan needed to continue their positivity through the back end of the innings as Hong Kong reached 44/3 after 12 overs. Humaira Tasneem, the UAE captain came into the attack to try trouble both Hill and Chan and that she did by bowling a flighted delivery only for Chan to hit the ball directly down the throat of Mid Wicket. Marina Lamplough joined Hill at the crease only to be run out next over.

Jasmine Titmuss came in to bat with Hong Kong struggling needing 51 off 30 balls to win the game. Both Hill and Titmuss needed to increase the intensity of the Hong Kong innings to close the gap with the final few overs remaining. Titmuss looked to drive on the initiative as she looked for the mid wicket boundary. However a quick succession of wickets with Hill called LBW and Pull To run out, it came down to Titmuss and Ruchitha Venkatesh needing an improbable 40 to win off the final over. UAE completed the win with Hong Kong only scoring 10 runs off the last over. UAE won by 21 runs.

Notable Performances

Esha Oza - 19 off 18

Kary Chan – 19 off 25

Chamani Senervirathne – 15 off 18

Subha Venkatraman – 4-0-16-2

Betty Chan – 4-0-14-2

Jasmine Titmuss – 3-0-20-2