Hong Kong captain Anshuman Rath said in the post-match interview that he thought the Affies park ground in Windhoek was a 250+ track and then to restrict Canada to 222/8 was a job well done by the bowlers. In a commanding batting display, Rath himself led the team to victory, also scoring the tournament’s first century on the way to an unbeaten 114.
Canada’s total was largely built around a pair of 44-run knocks from Srimantha Wijeyeratne and Navneet Dhaliwal, in a 82-runs partnership for the 2nd wicket and a late cameo from captain Davy Jacobs, who helped his way to a half-century and remained unbeaten on 52 runs. Canada would have got few more runs but a hat-trick on the final three deliveries from Kinchit Shah in their innings brought a halt to their eventual total on the board.
Kinchit Shah was the top wicket-taker with 4 wickets to his name and got good support from Tanwir Afzal, Aizaz Khan and Ehsan Khan in the bowling department.
A 90-run opening partnership between Rath and the returning Jamie Atkinson gave Hong Kong the perfect start and even after Atkinson’s departure, Kinchit Shah provided good support to the captain and kept the scoreboard moving along. Debutant Ahsan Abassi also chipped in with a good support knock of 27 runs and saw Rath complete his century during their partnership, that nearly took them home; however, Abassi fell after Hong Kong reached 200 and it was left to Rath and Afzal to complete the proceedings to start their campaign with a solid win and claimed their crucial 2 points from the match.
Brief Scores:
Canada 222 all out in 50 overs (Davy Jacobs 52 n.o, Srimantha Wijeyeratne 44, Navneet Dhaliwal 44, Bhavindu Adhihetty 33, Kinchit Shah 4/32, Aizaz Khan 1/26, Ehsan Khan 1/30) lost to Hong Kong 222/3 in 47.2 overs (Anshuman Rath 114 n.o, Jamie Atkinson 35, Kinchit Shah 27, Ahsan Abassi 27, Nikhil Dutta 2/30, Saad bin Zafar 1/50) by 7 wickets
