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10日 12月
The first game of Group B in Division 2 saw China win the toss and elect to bowl. Unsure of what to expect from the wicket and a heavy dew on the ground, Hong Kong made a watchful start to their innings. Munir Khan and Kalhan Challu got through the first 8 overs before Munir Khan was adjudged LBW for 12 with the score on 29.
Captain, Adit Gorawara was next in and looked to keep things ticking over with some busy running between the wickets. The wicket seemed a little two paced and Gorawara tried to play a ball through square leg only to find the leading edge which ended up in the safe hands of Gao Guo of China. Hong Kong, 44 for 2 wickets at the end of the 11th over.
This wicket brought together Aarush Bhagwat and Kalhan Challu. The pair stayed patient against some disciplined bowling from the Chinese team. Assessing the pitch and looking to build a big partnership.
This patience paid off with runs starting to flow, Kalhan Challu brought up his 50 from 60 balls, and Hong Kong brought their total up to 100/2 off 21 overs. Eventually China broke the partnership after a loose shot from Aarush Bhagwat presenting another simple catch. Bhagwat contributing 47 runs in a partnership of 126 with Kalhan Challu, who remained 92 not out.
Kalhan Challu then brought up a well-deserved 100 off 103 balls with a single to long on and Hong Kong were looking at posting well over 300, with the score at 210 for 3 off 38 overs.
Unfortunately for Hong Kong, the innings stalled when Kalhan top edged a delivery straight in the air, eventually been dismissed for 109.
Some poor shot selections from the lower order meant that wickets fell at regular interval and Hong Kong slipped to 249 all out in 46.5 overs.
China were very buoyant following a strong last 10 overs in the field but still had a massive task to try and chase down, what seemed to be an above par score.
Nasrulla Rana and Vikas Sharma opened the bowling for Hong Kong and soon settled into their work.
With the China batsman looking more to survive rather than score runs it was only a matter of time before Hong Kong picked up the first wicket. It was Nasrulla Rana who claimed the first wicket with a good short ball that surprised the batsman and Aarush Bhagwat taking a simple caught behind. China 21 for 1. With the wind in sails, Nasrulla sent down another good short delivery, the very next ball and wrapped the batsman on his gloves, presenting Bhagwat with another caught behind.
Not to be outdone Vikas Sharma found some good rhythm and was soon amongst the wickets as well and Hong Kong taking 3 wickets in 4 balls. China were finding it very hard to deal with the pace of the opening pair and were 38 for 6 after 13 overs. Vikas Sharma finished an excellent spell of bowling by sending the stumps cartwheeling, to finish with 6-1-19-3. Nasrulla Rana was finally replaced and finished with figures of 7-0-17-3.
The damage was done by Hong Kong and China struggled to recover ending up been bowled out for 67 in 23 overs following useful spells from Dhananjay Rao 3-0-11-1, Hassan Mohammad Khan 5-1-10-2 and Mehran Zeb 2-2-0-1.
Hong Kong will play Kuwait tomorrow at Chang Mai Gymkhana Cricket Ground in their second Group B fixture starting at 9:30am local time.
- Photo Credit: ICC