Al Amerat: Ehsan Khan shone with his sensational bowling to help Hong Kong beat Singapore by eight runs in a thrilling opening match of the Asian Cup Qualifier here on Saturday.
Set to chase a respectable total of 149 runs, Singapore fell short of the target and went 140/7 in 20 overs after right-arm spinner Ehsan bowled in a superb last second, catching two wickets for just five runs.
Ehsan turned the tables when he fired Avi Dixit (19) and Surendran Chandramohan (12) after Singapore cruised to victory by going 129/5 at the bottom of the 18th.
Janak Prakash remained Singapore’s top scorer as he played a cautious 31-for-32 shot while starter Aritra Dutta went 29-for-16.
For Hong Kong, Ehsan led the charge as he returned figures of 3/20, while Mohammad Ghazanfar claimed two wickets and Kinchit Shah made a scalp.
Hong Kong, on the other hand, got off to a dismal start as they lost two early wickets before Kinchit and Yasim Murtaza combined excellently for a 65-race partnership. Kinchit was the top scorer for his team as he shot 34 of 32 while Yasim scored 26 of 28.
Haroon Arshad, however, played a late 27-for-14 undefeated cameo to help the team finish 148/9 in the first innings.
For Singapore, Amjab Mehboob, Janak Prakash and Akshay Puri bagged two wickets each, while Aryaman Sunil and Vinoth Baskaran each bagged a scalp.
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