Malaysian Cricket Association (MCA) President’s XI registered their 2nd win over Hong Kong in the four match series after wining a thriller match at Kinrara Oval by 2 wickets.
Hong Kong gave a much better display in their batting after the debacle in the 1st match by posting 238/9 in their 50 overs. Opener Akbar Khan played the anchors role at the top with a 124 ball innings making 93 runs but was unfortunate to miss out on a century. Hong Kong were in a spot of bother at 120/5 when Shahid Wasif & Ehsan Nawaz got out quickly in the middle overs but were rescued by Akbar and Haroon Arshad (once again!!).
Arshad will be definitely knocking down the door for national first XI selection for Hong Kong as he played a good knock of 52 from 53 deliveries to not only provide Akbar with the crucial partnership but also picked up the scoring rate. Hong Kong again lost wickets in a cluster in the final overs to get restricted to 238/9.
Mohammad Shukri (3/34), Muhammad Anwar (3/41) and Dhivendran Mogan (2/48) were the wicket-takers for MCA President’s XI.
Hong Kong bowlers kept picking regular wickets but MCA batters made just about enough runs individually to take them past Hong Kong’s total, reaching 241/8 in 48.4 overs. Anwar Arudin (37 off 30) and Ainool Haqqiem (27 off 48) gave away their wickets after providing a good start to MCA innings. Syed Aziz Syed Mubarak & Mohammad Shukri were the stars of the day with the bat as they scored 52 & 25 n.o respectively to guide President’s XI to victory.
Aftab Hussain (3/37) and Tanveer Ahmed (2/38) bowled good spells for Hong Kong while Ehsan Nawas bowled economically for Hong Kong. Both sides will meet again on 12th Apr 2018 for the 3rd match of the series. Malaysia will have these last two matches to give their national squad members game-time before the all important ICC WCL Division 4 starts during the final week of Apr 2018.
