Grand Championship
Valley Black 12-10 Gai Wu Falcons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 16:30
National 15s WNL1-A: Grand Championship
City Sparkles 8-5 Valley Red
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00
National 15s WNL1-B: Grand Championship
HKCC 17-7 HK Scottish
@ KGV, Kick-off: 16:30
National 10s: Grand Championship
Tin Shui Wai 5-10 Revolution SRC
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 16:30
Scotland has sealed an eight-wicket victory over Hong Kong chasing a revised target of 76 runs in a rain-affected match in Nagpur on Saturday.
After Hong Kong posted 127 for seven in its 20 overs, Scotland passed the revised target to finish at 78 for two in eight overs, and also record its first victory in a global ICC tournament.
Earlier, A 49-run partnership between vice-captain Mark Chapman (40) and 18-year-old Anshuman Rath (21) formed the foundation for the Hong Kong innings.
Rain stopped play at in the final over of Hong Kong’s innings, and Kinchit Shah and Aizaz Khan came back to the crease for three balls to add seven runs and push Hong Kong to a modest total to 127 for seven.
Rain during the innings break led to the revision of the Scotland target and a reduction of its innings to nine overs. Its batsmen came out swinging, hitting boundaries to ensure that Scotland stayed about the required run rate. Matthew Cross top scored with 22, while for Hong Kong, Aizaz Khan and Nadeem Ahmed claimed a wicket apiece.
Captain Tanwir Afzal felt his side had let an opportunity slip through its fingers: “I think I am quite happy with the first two games, we fought really hard, but we lack of experience and maturity. So we can play better than we showed here. We did not take our chances tonight.”
Coach Simon Cook agreed: “To a certain extent, yes, we are an inexperienced side. You take Ryan Campbell out and our average age is 20. We don’t have a lot of grounds in Hong Kong, so our domestic structure also lends itself to infrequent cricket. It becomes tough to get the group together.”
“I am a little bit disappointed as to how we played, because we are a better side than what we’ve showed in these three games. We’ve certainly proved that in the past, with the recent World Cricket League Championship and ICup matches, that we are a competitive side. I’d like to see that we keep making progress.
“That inexperience comes in as how to play on those slower pitches, understanding that 140 to 145 is actually a really competitive total and not trying to go for the 150s or 160s. There’s a combination of things, but I certainly would have liked us to win at least one game in this tournament.”
The coach continued: “A few things that we’ve been working on haven’t quite clicked. One of our strengths in the past has been our partnerships, having batters batting through the majority of the innings, and finishing the end of the innings explosively. And the fielding, we worked really, really hard with Trevor Penney who came over and did some work with us prior to coming away. They are controllable things for us, and when we play against better teams, you want to try and do your controllables very well, and everything else hopefully fits in.”
Looking ahead, Cook said: “We’re so new to this level of cricket, this is the most cricket we’ve ever played, so we are kind of happy! Having said that, the more cricket, the better for us, and I understand that there may be frustration of how the calendar is scheduled. I think when we find our footing a little bit more in the Associate calendar, then we’ll probably want more cricket.”
Source: HK Cricket Association
Photo: ICC Cricket
After a bright start Hong Kong’s middle order failed again as Afghanistan bossed their way to second successive win, this time by six wickets, to set up a knockout match against Zimbabwe to determine the Group B qualifier for the World Twenty20 Super 10s.
Hong Kong won the toss and, opting to bat, raced away to 40 without loss before losing the plot as four wickets fell in four overs – mostly to lose shots. Although Mark Chapman could do little about a superb yorker from Gulbadin Naib. Hong Kong needing to post a good score to stay in the tournament just couldn’t find the boundary rope and struggled to reach 116 for 6 – mainly thanks to Anshuman Rath’s unbeaten 31-ball 28. A total that was 40 short of what Tanwir Afzal, the captain, hoped to get.
Hong Kong’s slim chance was to pick-up early wickets, that that didn’t happen and the game was reduced to a cakewalk for Afghanistan who won with two overs to spare.
Ryan Campbell, who struggled on his Hong Kong debut two nights ago, opened with a ‘high-risk, high returns’ approach and muscled five early boundaries. But Nabi’s slow turn beat him as he attempted a sweep and the ball bounced back onto the stumps. Two balls later Babar Hayat’s disappointing tournament with the bat continued as he was deceived by the flight and chipped a simple catch to cover.
Rashid Khan, the skiddy legspinner made an impact immediately with his mix of googlies and sliders as Hong Kong’s batsmen suddenly started playing for demons that weren’t there. The slow bowlers scythed through the middle order, with the continuous loss of wickets making run-scoring difficult.
Amidst the carnage, Rath nudged his way along playing with soft hands, and using deft touches to push his team to 116 for 6. Nabi was the pick of the bowlers, his 4 for 20 the best figures by an Afghan bowler in T20Is.
Noor Ali Zadran’s straight boundary off the first ball of Afghanistan’s innings heralded the start of the end. With little swing or nip off the surface, the pacemen resorted to gentle off-cutters. Afzal then turned to spin in the hope of doing to Afghanistan what Nabi and Rashid Khan did to them. But the batsmen’s application thwarted their designs as Afghanistan scored 43 in the first six overs. Overconfidence got the better of Shahzad, who holed out to long-off for a 40-ball 41 to give Campbell his first T20 wicket. Nabi and Noor Ali then milked the bowling before an ungainly slog ended Nabi’s stay. Two balls later, Noor Ali was run-out courtesy Hayat’s flat throw from the deep.
The three wickets in quick time did very little to lift Hong Kong, whose muted celebrations were a giveaway that it wouldn’t really affect the big picture as Afghanistan completed an easy chase and knocked a hugely disappointing Hong Kong out of the World Twenty20 tournament.
Afghanistan 119 for 4 (Shahzad 41, Noor Ali 35) beat Hong Kong 116 for 6 (Rath 28, Campbell 27, Nabi 4-20) by six wickets
source: ICC, cricinfo
Undefeated league champions Valley Black Ladies proved too strong for HKFC Ice, easily advancing to the Grand Championship final. HKFC Ice bowed out after a strong debut in the Premiership. Coach David Wigley commented on their season saying: “Valley are a level above everyone, but we’re really pleased with our first season in the Premiership.
“We had quite a few injuries early on, but we’ve come on and got stronger. This is a tight-knit group that play for each other. We came in fourth this season and we would have been happy to finish 5th or 6th at the beginning of the year, but now we feel like we can contend against the likes of Tigers and Gai Wu. We’re still at a learning and building stage, but we’re very happy with our performance.”
In the other semi-final, Gai Wu Falcons came up with an emphatic 24-5 win over USRC Tigers to set up a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship final with Valley. Speedster Aggie Poon Pak Yan collected a brace for the Falcons, with Hong Kong fifteens captain and No.8 Chow Mei Nam, and up and coming sevens star Chong Ka Yan, adding tries in the statement win over Tigers. Falcons coach Lai Yiu Pang was proud of the performance saying:
“We went out and executed our game plan, particularly with our defence and our play at the breakdown. It was a really tough game and the team deserves a lot of credit. It was a big win for us and will give us a some momentum. It was also good to get a bit of revenge after Tigers edged us out of second place in the league.”
It will be a rematch of last year’s Grand Championship when Valley beat Falcons 20-10. “It is going to be tough against Valley, said Pang, “They have a lot more size then we do so we’re going to need to be clinical in our defence and tackling. But we have built some strong momentum today. The win over Tigers was really good for our confidence and we deserve our place in the final,” Pang added.
photo: Valley RFC
source: HKRU
Grand Championship
Valley Black 74-0 HKFC Ice
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 15:00
USRC Tigers 5-24 Gai Wu Falcons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00
National 15s
CWB Pheasants 10-16 City
@ KGV, Kick-off: 18:00
Valley Red 13-12 Revolution SRC
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 18:00
HKCC 48-7 Tai Po Dragons
@ Aberdeen, Kick-off: 18:00
HK Scottish 17-7 Police
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00
National 10s
Tin Shui Wai 26-5 City
@ Tin Shui Wai, Kick-off: 14:00
Revolution SRC 12-10 CWB Pink
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 15:00
Grand Championship
Gai Wu Falcons 76-0 Kowloon
@ Happy Valley, Kick-off: 16:30
HKFC Ice 27-12 CWB Phoenix
@ HK Football Club, Kick-off: 18:00
USRC Tigers 62-0 Tai Po Dragons
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 19:30
National 15s
Gai Wu Fawkes v Revolution SRC
@ Happy Valley, Kick off: 18:00
USRC Tigers 7-19 City
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 16:30
Tai Po Dragons 3-0 Police
@ King’s Park, Kick-off: 18:00
HKCC 38-10 HK Scottish
@ Aberdeen, Kick-off: 18:00
10s Grand Championship
Revolution SRC v DB Pirates
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 16:30
CWB Pink v University
@ So Kon Po, Kick-off: 17:15
City 54-10 HK Scottish
@ Shek Kip Mei, Kick-off: 18:00
