Hong Kong’s World Cup aspirations ended when they were not able to beat China, as the teams split the two ‘Cross-border Derbies’ at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Asia Qualifiers. China have bounced back from being 0-3 to win two matches in a row. While Hong Kong having won their first two games have lost three in a row.
Aggressive running from China and some missed fielding from the home team contributed to China’s total of 114. On the flip side, the running and occasional miscommunications between batsmen resulted in four run-outs for China.
But the 71-run partnership between Feng-Feng Song (36 off 34) and Zhuo Huang (31 off 34) was killer partnership for Hong Kong.
Two wickets in each of the 12th and 14th overs gave Hong Kong some hope, but Cai-Yun Zhou’s 16 off 9 towards the end made it a strong total for the visitors.
Hong Kong’s chase did not pick up enough pace until Captain Mariko Hill entered at number four. She continued her recent form scoring 38 off 35 balls. But she didn’t have the support needed and they were 18 runs short of the target after 20 overs.
Juan Wu of China was the key limiting Hong Kong’s score with 3/11.
“We had a great first over (bowling), we took one wicket and lost only one run. But after the first over things started to turn around,” said Mariko Hill after the match. “We have got nothing to lose now. There is still an Asia Cup spot left. We are going to fight our heart out.”
Match Summary
China 114 all out (19 overs)
Hong Kong 96/6 (20/20 ov)
China won by 18 runs
Scoreboard: www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/1059678.html
Additional reporting and image: Hong Kong Cricket Association