HOSTS EUPHORIC AFTER GAINING SEMI-FINAL SPOT
The game between Kuwait and Hong Kong was the decider as to which team would qualify from Group B along with UAE. Hong Kong had only themselves to blame for their batting collapse as they lost to hosts Kuwait by 22 runs, handing the second semi-spot to them.
Putting themselves in to bat after winning the toss, Kuwait had just 1 run from the first over, courtesy of a wide from Afzaal Haider (0-36). Butt Hussain (4-14) has been known for making himself a nuisance to batting opposition and he yet again proved the tagline worthy by picking up two wickets in his first over. Nadeem Malik (0) was trapped LBW in Hussain's second ball and in his fourth, a cleverly disguised slower ball had Hisham Mirza (0) completely tricked. Mirza mistimed his shot floating the ball into Tabarak Dar's hands.
Yasin Mughal (42) came to the rescue of his team as his brilliant innings came off just 32 balls with seven boundaries, with him hitting three consecutive fours in an over. Both Mughal and Azmatullah Mohammad (28) put on what was an explosive 50-run partnership. Azmatuallah looked to pile on more runs but was brilliantly dismissed by wicket-keeper Nasif Hameed and Kuwait were soon at 114-8 after 16.3 overs.
The fall of Azmatullah surely looked to bring the Kuwaiti innings to an end as the home team finished on 125 all out after 18.2 overs.
Hong Kong started positively at the start of their innings as Tabarak Dar (26) hit boundaries in all of the first three overs. The fall of Imran Idress in the third did little to stop Hong Kong from playing their shots as Najeeb Amar (12) joined in, hitting one six and one four in the fourth over. The batsmen seemed to have learnt to playing freely from the start after their delayed reactions cost them the game against UAE, a match that would've cemented their place in the semis.
It was all going well and in a flash Hong Kong's poor batting came back to haunt them. After the fall of Khalid Butt (5) in the sixth over, they lost three wickets over the span of two overs with the score at 67-6 after 9.2 overs.
Hong Kong only piled the pressure on themselves when in the eleventh over two of their batsmen were run out. At a time when the team needed to stay cool and get the runs, Kuwait were the ones who got the wickets.
Due to the net run rate calculations, Kuwait needed to get Hong Kong all out before they reached 108 in order to have a better net run rate than of Singapore, who were poised at second at the end of yesterday's games.
The home crowd, all pumped up, were cheering their players on and eventually it happened. Illyas Gul (12*) and Rafaqat Ali (3) only managed to delay Kuwait's ecstatic celebrations as Hong Kong fell on 103 in the seventeenth over.
Kuwaiti captain Yasin Mughal was named the Man of the Match as the hosts book their place in the ACC Twenty20 Cup semi-finals against Oman tomorrow.
Kuwait v Hong Kong at KEC Unity
KUWAIT WON BY 22 RUNS
Kuwait won the toss and chose to bat
Kuwait: 125 all out after 18.2 overs (Y. Mughal 42; B. Hussain 4-14)
Hong Kong: 103 all out after 17.3 overs (A. Mohammad 3-15)
Man of the Match: Yasin Mughal (Kuwait)
Scorecard
Filed October 31 2007
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