Last Sunday saw the conclusion of the Pakistan Qualifying final with 6 teams competing for the Jinnah Cup and a place in the Hong Kong World Tapeball Cricket 8s final.

Kwai Chung United, Geo Cricket Club, Kwun Tong United and SSP All Stars made their way through to the semi-finals with a number of the group stage matches showcasing a great deal of passion, skill and close finishes on a very warm summers day at The PKVR Lower Ground.

The tournament featured some of the leading Tapeball players from all over Hong Kong with the addition of some of the Hong Kong National Men’s Team taking part including Hong Kong captain Babar Hayat. The Tapeball format is new to CHK this season and across the initial stages of the Hong Kong World Tapeball Cricket 8s, we have been continually impressed by the desire of the teams and the players to succeed. Tapeball has been played in Hong Kong for a number of years and CHK is determined to understand more about this modified format of the game and identifying ways to make this more accessible for players within Hong Kong on a more regular basis.

Throughout the finals day, the average first innings score was around 70, however it all changed when it came to the semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Kwai Chung United were pitted against Geo Cricket Club. Ghulam Hussain Captain of Geo Cricket Club won the toss and elected to bat first. Former Hong Kong National Men’s squad player Haseeb Amjad was sent in to open the innings with current Hong Kong National Men’s Squad Player Ehsan Nawaz. Both of them were dismissed cheaply with Haseeb making 7 runs and Ehsan getting caught on the boundary from the first ball he faced. Geo Cricket Club proceeded to struggle to 46 all out with Awais Muhammad top scoring with 26. Kwai Chung led by Zeeshan Ali (23 off 7 balls) led the way in reply and they managed a comfortable win with 4 balls remaining to make the final.

The second semi-final was played between the Kwun Tong United and the SSP All Stars, Khizar Hayat Captain of Kwun Tong United won the toss and elected to field first. The SSP innings never really got the momentum that they were looking for with Asad proving to be the danger man with ball in hand restricting SSP to 41 in their allotted 5 overs. In the second innings, Babar Hayat and Shahid Adnan were dismissed cheaply in the early stages of the Kwun Tong United innings. The strength in depth in the middle order came to the fore with Zamir Ali rotating the strike allowing Skipper Khizar Hayat to see his team home with an entertaining 18 off 9 balls with 9 balls to spare.

Kwai Chung United and Kwun Tong United had progressed to the final with Kwai Chung captain Yaser Muhammad winning the toss and electing to field first. Kwai Chug struck a major blow in removing Babar Hayat bowled off the first ball of the innings. The Kwai Chung bowlers stuck to their disciplines and restricted the much daunted Kwun Tong batting line up to 49 for the loss of 7 wickets off their allotted overs. The Kwai Chung United batters made short work of the chase and were crowned worthy winners with Awais Muhammad and Muhammad Zafran leading the team to victory with 8 balls to spare.

The Chief Guest of the tournament was the Consul General of Pakistan Consulate in Hong Kong Mr Abdul Qader Memon who presented the awards to the winners and the runners-up. Mr Abdul Qader Memon was generous in his praise highlighting that “These kind of tournaments really help the game growing in Hong Kong and most importantly helps us who love to play the game of cricket to compete against each other in a peaceful manner”. The game shows that we are united as I can see today in the same team we have people playing from all parts of Pakistan“ all coming together in an action packed format of the game which can only go from strength to strength moving forwards”.

Kwai Chung United will be representing Pakistan in the Main Event of the Hong Kong World Tape Ball Cricket 8s on the 18th of August 2018.