Photo Credit: Peter Della Penna / ESPN Cricinfo

Scorecard: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/1074966.html

Hong Kong have pulled off a miraculous turn around in form to hammer The Netherlands in their final group game of the Desert T20.

After being dismissed for 88 in their heavy loss to Oman two days ago, Hong Kong posted 183-4 from 20 before rolling the Dutch for 92.

Such was the margin of victory – it has provided HK with a slim hope of reaching the semi-finals if Scotland can beat Oman by a decent margin in tonight’s match.

On a night where almost everything fell Hong Kong’s way, Nizakat Khan hammered three boundaries from the first three balls of the match to help drown memories of their Oman outing. He was then dropped but went on to smash 59 off 33 balls.

With a base to work with Anshuman Rath (44 off 26) and Waqas Khan (33* off 25) produced a huge surge at the end of the innings, hitting 77 runs in 42 balls. The total was Hong Kong's highest in T20i matches and third highest when including all T20 matches played by the SAR.

In response, Rath backed up his batting effort with the ball, taking 3-6 off two overs seal Man of the Match honours in a huge collapse from The Netherlands.

At one stage the Dutch fell to 9-63 but a last wicket stand of 29 added some respectability and put a dent in Hong Kong’s hopes of challenging Oman’s net run-rate.

Hong Kong coach Simon Cook said “I feel more frustrated than elated because if we’d have played half as well in this game as the others we would have won those matches. We were magnificent tonight."

"We showed what we can do if we can apply ourselves and have the will to do the job at hand."

"The frustrating thing is they said in the team meeting that this is how they wanted to play and they did it. This wasn’t luck, this was a group of players who wanted to win in emphatic fashion and they did."

"It wasn’t a hard decision to keep the same side, the batters are in good nick and it was just a case of not over-reacting and backing ourselves."

"We’ll look back on the tournament and say if we’d have just put on more runs and dragged the match out (against Oman) and think 'what if' but we need to remove those and actually deliver."

“Anshuman Rath is right up there already as one of our most consistent players – he’s technically as good as anyone and he’s now got some boundary options. He’s got a 360 scoring area and will always be a useful bowler."

Regardless of the result in the Oman and Scotland match, Hong Kong will remain in the UAE for a ODI series against the host nation and Scotland.