New Delhi: Suryakumar Yadav’s aggressive 68 off 26 balls and Virat Kohli’s (59 not out) half-century beat Hong Kong by 40 runs in the Asia Cup T20 cricket match to enter the Super Four from Group A. This is India’s second consecutive win, having defeated Pakistan by five wickets in the opening match of the tournament. Afghanistan has reached the Super Four from Group B, after being invited to bat, India scored a huge score of 192 for two wickets, in response to which the Hong Kong team played the entire over and scored 152 runs for the loss of five wickets.
‘Player of the match’ Suryakumar and Kohli played an unbeaten partnership of 98 runs for the third wicket. In both of these, Suryakumar batted very aggressively, he hit six sixes and as many fours in 26 balls, due to which Kohli’s half-century faded a bit. Kohli scored a half-century after a long time. Earlier this year on February 18, he scored 52 runs against West Indies in Kolkata. Kohli, who scored 35 runs in 34 balls against Pakistan, hit one four and three sixes in his 44-ball innings.
Suryakumar, batting on 42, hit four lofty five-ball sixes off Haroon Arshad in the final over to reach his half-century in just 22 balls. India added 26 runs in this 20th over. India had a slow start in which KL Rahul (36) and captain Rohit Sharma (21) could not play big innings. Rahul, returning from injury, was expected to score well but he took 39 balls for 36 runs. He hit two sixes out of which one was on a free hit.
Captain Rohit was also dismissed in 13 balls with two fours and a six, he was dismissed by Ayush Shukla. Rohit became the first player to complete 3,500 runs in T20 Internationals during this period. He also completed 12,000 runs in international cricket as an opener. In an attempt to sweep the delivery of Mohammad Ghazanfar, Rahul was caught by the wicketkeeper. The team had lost both of these wickets in 13 overs, making the score 94 for two. Then Kohli and Suryakumar were at the crease, who shared an unbeaten 98 runs in just 42 balls.
The team added 54 runs in the last three overs, it was impossible for Hong Kong to reach the target from this mountain, but its batsmen showed great spirit and lost only five wickets, the team added 33 runs in the last two overs. Avesh Khan proved to be the most expensive for India, who took one wicket for 53 runs in four overs. Arshdeep Singh also conceded 44 runs in four overs and took one wicket. The Hong Kong team lost the wicket of Yasim Mortaza (09) in the second over, who hit two fours. Captain Nizakat Khan (10) was run out by Ravindra Jadeja’s brilliant fielding.
Babar Hayat, however, played well, scoring 41 runs during his 35-ball knock with three fours and two sixes. In the 12th over, Jadeja’s round-the-stump ball hit the edge of his bat and got caught in the hands of Avesh Khan on the shot third man. Avesh Khan bowled Ejaz Khan (14 runs) in the 15th over. Captain Rohit handed the ball to Kohli in the 17th over, who conceded six runs in an over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took one wicket for 15 runs in three overs in the form of Kinchit Shah (30 runs) of Hong Kong. He was the fifth player to be dismissed slightly.
