The second day of the Asia Cup qualifiers, there were three matches played in which Oman and UAE have notched up their second straight win whereas Hong Kong won their match against Singapore after their loss against Malaysia.
Team Circle of Cricket summarizes the story of all the three matches which were played.
Hong Kong v Singapore
Hong Kong won their match against UAE after the bowlers proved captain's decision of bowling first, right. Tanwir Afzal and Ehsan Nawaz responded with four quick wickets. Singapore made a slight recovery after the early jolt, but the introduction of Ahmed's left-arm spin wrecked havoc and they were bundled out for 150.
Hong Kong lost early wickets in their chase. However, Babar Hayat, Nizakat Khan and Kinchit Shah, in particular, made small contributions to ensure Hong Kong do not lose consecutive games.
Brief scores:
Singapore 150 in 41.2 overs (Abhiraj Singh 42; Nadeem Ahmed 4/30, Ehsan Nawaz 2/27, Tanwir Afzal 2/31) lost to Hong Kong 154/5 in 34.2 overs (Kinchit Shah 47*, Nizakat Khan 36; Selladore Vijayakumar 3/25) by 5 wickets.
UAE v Nepal
UAE won their second game on the bounce against Nepal who lost their second game on the trot. Chirag Suri and Ahmed Raza were once again the star performers for UAE in their 78-run win at the UKM-YSD Cricket Oval, Bangi.
The UAE top order of Chirag Suri (65), Adnan Mufti (57) and Ashfaq Ahmed (45) added crucial runs to help UAE register 254/9 batting first.
Nepal did not really look in shape in their chase barring Subash Khakurel who scored 50 and held one end up. Ahmed Raza ran through the middle order and finished with figures of 4 for 37. The lower order fought valiantly and reduced the margin of defeat.
Brief scores:
UAE 254/9 in 50 overs (Chirag Suri 65, Adnan Mufti 57, Ashfaq Ahmed 45; Sandeep Lamichhane 4/24) beat Nepal 176 in 48.5 overs (Subash Khakurel 50, Dipendra Singh Airee 40; Ahmed Raza 4/37, Mohammad Naveed 3/48) by 78 runs.
Oman v Malaysia
In the final game of the day, Oman won their contest against Malaysia. In a close contest, Malaysia scored 198 batting first after losing wickets at regular intervals. Virandeep Singh scored a substantial 74 as all the others failed to contribute.
Though any Oman batsman did not score a fifty they were gritty enough to make sure that they end up on the winning side. The middle-order batsman remained unbeaten and capitalized on a steady start provided by the top order. Abdul Rashid's 4 for 30 and Muhammad Anwar's 3 for 36 went in vain as Oman scrapped through.
Brief scores: Malaysia 198/8 in 50 overs (Virandeep Singh 74*; Bilal Khan 3/28, Ahmad Fayyaz Butt 3/43) lost to Oman 199/8 in 49.2 overs (Ajay Lalcheta 44*, Vaibhav Wategaonkar 39; Abdul Rashid 4/30, Muhammad Anwar 3/36) by 2 wickets.
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
