On the third day of the Asia Cup qualifiers, there were three matches played in which Oman, Nepal and Hong Kong won their respective matches. Team Circle of Cricket summarizes the story of all the three matches which were played.
Oman vs Singapore
Bilal Khan's four wicket haul coupled with Aqib Ilyas struck a 70-ball 109 helped Oman to win their game against Singapore courtesy of which they topped the table in the Asia Cup qualifiers.
Opting to bat, Singapore rode on half-centuries from Anish Paraam and Rohan Rangarajan, who were involved in a 106-run stand for the second wicket, to get off to a strong start. However, Bilal and Mohammad Nadeem shared six wickets between them to suck the momentum out of Singapore's innings. This meant that Singapore could only muster 215 for 8 after the middle order slumped under pressure.
Oman's chase was powered by a 151-run opening stand, with Jatinder Singh's 46-ball 53, which included six fours and two sixes, serving as a supporting act to Ilyas who struck 12 fours and six sixes who scored 109 to lay the platform for a good Oman chase. At the end, Oman won the game by 8 wickets to top the table.
Brief scores
Singapore 215/8 in 50 overs (Anish Paraam 77, Rohan Rangarajan 68; Bilal Khan 4-40, Mohammad Nadeem 2-21) lost to Oman 216/2 in 26.4 overs (Aqib Ilyas 109, Jatinder Singh 53; Manpreet Singh 1-23) by 8 wickets.
Malaysia vs Nepal
In the second game, Nepal got the better of Malaysia in a relatively low scoring encounter. In a match reduced to 90 overs, Nepal scored 188 for 7 with fifties from Aarif Sheikh 64* and Dipendra Singh Airee 54. Nepal at one point were reduced to 60 for 5 before the 13th over was completed, with Syazrul Idrus and Sharvin Muniandy doing the bulk of the damage.
Malaysia added a 40 run stand for the first wicket. However, the failure of the Malaysia batsmen to capitalize on their starts - six of the top seven getting into double digits but only two scores of 30-plus - kept Nepal in the hunt as they struck at regular intervals. They fell short by 20 runs to end up on 169 for 9.
Brief scores:
Nepal 188/7 in 30 overs (Aarif Sheikh 64*, Dipendra Singh Airee 54; Syazrul Idrus 3-27, Sharvin Muniandy 3-50) beat Malaysia 169/9 in 30 overs (Syed Aziz 34, Anwar Arudin 34; Basant Regmi 3-36, Sandeep Lamichhane 2-20) by 19 runs.
UAE vs Hong Kong
It was a complete game for Hong Kong as they humbled UAE in the final game of the day by bowling them out for a paltry 93 chasing 276 for victory.
Brief Scores
Babar Hayat (107) and Anshuman Rath (102) scored centuries to help UAE finish on 275 for 8 in their 50 overs.
Hong Kong losing wickets at regular intervals did not help themselves in the chase as ultimately they were bowled out for 93 handing UAE a 182 run victory. UAE had lost half their side with only 63 runs on the board. Already in shambles, any thoughts of a comeback were thwarted by Ehsan Khan, who added three more to his wickets tally before Nadeem accounted for the last to bowl UAE out for 93 as early as the 25th over.
Brief scores:
Hong Kong 275/8 in 49 overs (Babar Hayat 107, Anshuman Rath 102; Rohan Mustafa 3-55, Imran Haider 3-58) beat UAE 93 in 24.5 overs (Rohan Mustafa 33; Ehsan Khan 4-17, Ehsan Nawaz 2-12) by 182 runs
