Sharvin 125* trumps Anshy’s 108 as Malaysia Clinch Thriller

The Hong Kong Men’s One Day Series kicked off with a last ball finish as Malaysia, who reached a challenging 277 courtesy Sharvin Muniandy’s bruising 125, ultimately emerged victorious by a mere two runs.

A mammoth 183-run partnership between Anshy Rath and Nizakat Khan helped Hong Kong, China reduce their equation to 74 runs off 57 balls in the second innings.

Yet, after Nizakat failed to clear Sharvin at mid on and Rath was bowled for 108 trying to reverse sweep Vijay Unni, the home side fell behind the asking rate.

Babar Hayat’s pull over mid wicket and Ehsan Nawaz’s thump over long on helped Hong Kong, China get to within 13 runs of victory with 6 balls to spare.

In the final over, Haroon Arshad was dropped at short third by Wafiq Irfan. To add insult to injury, the ball travelled for four, leaving Arshad and Nawaz with 8 to get off 4 balls.

Bowling the last over, Virandeep Singh fired back with two dots and a single. With Nawaz on strike for the last ball, he could have tied the game with a maximum. Tragically for the home side, his lofted extra cover drive bounced once before crossing the boundary, eliciting celebrations from the visitors.

Earlier in the day, eventual player-of-the-match Sharvin walked in at the fall of Virandeep’s wicket in the tenth over. He bided his time initially; scoring 41 runs off his first 85 balls before cutting lose. Ehsan Nawaz bore the brunt of Sharvin’s assault, getting carted for three sixes by the powerful Malaysian, one of which sailed over long on to bring up his century.

Amir Azim swept Arshad for six over fine leg before top edging another attempted sweep straight over the keeper’s head for another maximum.

All in all, Malaysia pummelled 100 runs in the last ten overs. This ultimately proved to be the difference between the two sides in a memorable win for the visitors, who play Canada tomorrow in the North American nation’s first game of the tri-series.

Brief Scores:

Malaysia 277/4 in 50 Overs (Sharvin 125, Syed Aziz 53, Nawaz 2-67, Kapur 1-25) beat Hong Kong China 275/7 in 50 Overs (Anshy Rath 108, Nizakat Khan 77, Vijay Unni 3-36) by 2 Runs