Day three of the DTC Hong Kong T20 Blitz saw yet more big hits as the tournament continued to entertain the lively crowd at the Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground.

Misbah ul Haq blasted 82 from 42 balls on day two and he went past that score on the third day of the tournament as he was once again the mainstay of the Hong Kong Island United side against Galaxy Gladiators Lantau in game five of tournament.

Misbah made 84 not out from 50 balls as he took the HKI Untied team to 177 for seven off their 20 overs. The Untied team were in serious trouble and needed their captain to rescue them. At one point they were 62 for four from the first nine covers and in danger of stumbling to a score of around 150.

While Misbah was phenomenal, his innings wasn’t chanceless . When he was on eight he edged Ryan Ten Doeschate through to Sangakkara but the Sri Lankan great could not hang on to a very difficult catch. From there he consolidated and then accelerated. Misbah passed 50 from 39 balls before scoring 34 runs from the next 11 balls he faced as he took his side to a total that was competitive but still under par.

Misbah’s contribution was all the more important because Ian Bell was unable to play due to a bruised foot suffered in the first match. The next highest score was the 23 made by Daniel Pascoe. Without United’s captain things would have been very different.

Even with the fantastic knock from the Pakistan Test captain it was not enough runs as Galaxy Gladiators Lantau raced to victory thanks to half centuries from Anshuman Rath and Kumar Sangakkara as the two elegant left-handers shared a stand worth 111 runs in 12.2 overs. 19-year-old Anshuman once again shone as the Hong Kong international made 53 from 47 balls to anchor the chase as Sangakkara blasted his way to 70 from 42 as the Galaxy Gladiators won by eight wickets with an over to spare.

In match six we saw the Hung Hom JD Jaguars take on the Kowloon Cantons. The Kowloon Cantons won the toss and elected to field first; with a slight drizzle in the air they wanted to be chasing. The JD Jaguars got off to a poor start as they were reduced to 49 for four with both Daren Sammy and James Franklin dismissed. They could have been bowled out inside their 20 overs but a man of the match performance with the bat from Johan Botha allowed them to reach 164 for nine from their 20 overs.

Botha made 65 from 37 balls as he shared a stand of 80 with Jonathan Foo who made 34. We have seen some massive scores on this ground so far - not least by the Kowloon Cantons who chased down 200 in less than 15 overs on the first day of the tournament. The real danger man for the Cantons was Dwayne Smith who scored 121 from 40 balls in his first innings of the tournament.

Smith could not find the same timing we saw in that marvellous hundred and he made 10 from 14 balls before he holed out. With Smith gone the pressure then fell to Marlon Samuels who had also scored runs in that first game. Samuels made just 22 before he too was caught in the deep.

A decent innings of 45 from 31 balls from Scotland’s Calum MacLeod kept the Canton’s hopes alive but when he lost his wicket to Franklin the chase fell apart with the JD Jaguars winning by 18 runs.

Tomorrow sees three matches taken place, with the first one starting at 7.45am local time. All five teams will be in action with the Cantons playing twice in front of a sell out crowd. The games will be streamed live and for free on the Cricket Hong Kong YouTubeand Facebook pages.