The Hong Kong and Chinese national teams played a 50-over friendly at Kai Tak in Hong Kong. The game, a warm-up match for the Hong Kong team before the ACC Trophy Elite in Kuwait, saw them win comfortably by 179 runs.

	Vikash Vaswani of Hong Kong on his way to his half-century © HKCA/Travis Pittman

Hong Kong batted first, their 258 off 47.1 overs was indebted to Vikash Vaswani (50), Irfan Ahmed (45) and Roy Lamsam (38). With the batsmen constantly going for big shots, most of the wickets fell to catches. “Our performance was OK but we could have done better,” said Hong Kong Coach Tabarak Dar who went on to praise the efforts of the Chinese team. “China bowled and fielded very well and took almost all their catches. China’s energy levels were very good in the field.”

Defending champions of the ACC Trophy Elite, Hong Kong will be playing more warm-up matches against local opposition in the days leading up to the tournament in Kuwait which starts on March 31st. “We didn’t field our first team against China but we will be, in the upcoming warm-ups,” added Tabarak. China scored 79 before being bowled out in their 34th over. Aizaz Khan, Najeeb Amar and Nadeem Ahmed (2 wickets each) featured in the bowling.

Dar insisted that his team would not be under pressure as defending champions of the ACC Trophy Elite and that they are looking to win the tournament game by game. “Unfortunately this isn’t a qualifier for the Asia Cup this time as that provides an added incentive for the finalists of the tournament who go on to play ODIs against Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This year the Hong Kong team is younger and stronger and we are looking forward to test the other teams.”

The Hong Kong coach hopes to leave for Kuwait a few days before the tournament starts in order to play practice games in local conditions.

Related:
Hong Kong Cricket Profile
China Cricket Profile

Filed March 18th, 2010