Muscat: Asian Cricket Council’s marquee event returns after a four-year interval with the 2022 edition of the Men’s Asia Cup. Being played in the T20 format, across two venues in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai International Cricket Stadium will host nine games including the final, while Sharjah Cricket Stadium will be host four games, starting from Aug 27- September 11.
Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will be joined by a sixth team, to be decided through a qualifying tournament, the Asia Cup Qualifier 2022, currently underway in Oman, being contested by Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
The opening match was played between Singapore and Hong Kong, with Singapore winning the toss and electing to field. Hong Kong fought back from a shaky start to set Singapore a target of 149 to win. In a closely fought battle Hing Kong pulled off a narrow win by 8 runs to gain valuable points in the competition. The spinners making a crucial contribution to Hong Kong’s victory.
Nizakat Khan, Hong Kong Captain said, “We won the game, and earned two points which was what we needed, but there are
some areas we need to work on and execute our plans properly. I think the credit goes to our spinners and the way they bowled, and credit goes to the boys, as they fought back well. I think we need to have a good plan about how our batters approach the power play, and our fielding.”
Amjad Mahboob, Singapore Captain, said, “We did well to restrict Hong Kong to under 150. We got a good start, but our middle order was unable to capitalise on that. I think we will be speaking to our batsmen to play more freely in future games. Credit goes to the Hong Kong team. They bowled very tight in the right areas and didn’t give us any easy balls to hit. Now we don’t have a choice, we must win our next two games to stay in the tournament.”
Ehsan Khan, Player of the Match, said, “There was some ups and downs, and it was a crucial match, and I am thankful we won the match. I didn’t feel under pressure, and I just stuck to my plan. My plan was to bowl stump to stump, and I went ahead with that plan, and it was easy in the end.”
