All-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai’s record-breaking T20 half-century highlighted Afghanistan’s confident start to the Asia Cup in a 94-run win over Hong Kong in Group B on Tuesday.

Omarzai (53) smacked five sixes to register Afghanistan’s fastest T20 half-century — off 20 balls — and opening batter Sediqullah Atal cashed in on three dropped catches to score unbeaten 73 off 52 balls in Afghanistan’s total of 188-6.

An inexperienced Hong Kong got squeezed against both pace and the three Afghan spinners before it struggled to reach 94-9 with Babar Hayat (39) and captain Yasim Murtaza (16) the only two batters to breach the double-figure mark.

Afghanistan fielders too were scratchy on the field, dropping three catches, but still brought up two close run-outs and Karim Janat made up for dropping a sitter at third with a brilliant diving catch in the outfield.

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are the other teams in Group B from which two teams qualify for the Super 4 stage of the tournament.

Hong Kong crashed against pace and spin
Afghanistan had the game closed out inside the eventful batting powerplay that saw a bizarre caught behind of Anshy Rath, two run-outs and also two dropped catches.

Rath surprisingly didn’t go for a television referral when replays showed there was a huge gap between bat and ball as he tried to drive Fazalhaq Farooqi’s (2-16) first ball he faced.

Rashid Khan had Nizakat Khan run-out of a direct throw and Omarzai hit the stumps in his follow through to run-out Kalhan Challu as Hong Kong couldn’t recover after crashing to 22-4 inside the first five overs.

In between a flurry of wickets both Challu and Hayat got reprieves when Afghanistan fielders missed out sitters.

However, the three spinners — Khan, Noor Ahmad and AM Ghazanfar — choked Hong Kong further by conceding just 44 runs in 10 overs between them with Khan and Ahmad grabbing one wicket each.

Hayat showed a brief spark by smacking three sixes in his 43-ball knock but his vigil ended in the 13th over when he spliced a catch of fast bowler Gulbadin Naib (2-8) as Hong Kong’s innings never got going.

Omarzai onslaught

Hong Kong spinners were tidy on the slow wicket before Omarzai teed off with a blistering fifth-wicket partnership of 82 runs with Atal off just 35 balls.

Afghanistan, which was bowled out for 66 in the tri-series final against Pakistan on Sunday, had a frustrating start when Atal got his first life in the very first over before Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s poor batting form in UAE continued and the opener was dismissed for 8 in the third over.

Atal hit his third half-century in his last four T20s and profited from Hong Kong’s lapses in the field. Murtaza featured in all the three chances to Atal as he twice dropped the batter.

Afghanistan was 119-4 in 16 overs before Omarzai’s onslaught against pace fetched his team 69 runs off the final four overs.

Omarzai played some impressive ramp shots over the head of wicketkeeper and raised his half-century by smashing three successive sixes and a four in fast bowler Ayush Sukla’s (2-54) penultimate over of Afghan innings before he holed out in the outfield while going for another big shot against the pace bowler. 

Source: AP
--Agencies