India vs Hong Kong: Rohit Sharma and Co. beat Hong Kong by 40 runs to confirm their second consecutive win on Thursday. With that win, they have sealed their spot for the top-four. India batted first and Rohit Sharma gave the team a strong start.
He scored 21 runs in 13 balls before getting out off Ayush Shukla in the 5th over. However, KL Rahul, on the other hand, struggled to get going. It wasn’t an ideal pitch to bat on and Virat Kohli too played with a lot of caution in the middle. KL Rahul lost his wicket in the 13th over after scoring 36 runs in 39 balls.
India needed to change the gears at that stage and Suryakumar Yadav came to their rescue. He went after the bowlers right from the onset and exhibited his wide range of strokeplay. Suryakumar Yadav hit 6 sixes and as many fours en-route to his unbeaten 68 run-knock in just 26 balls, striking at 261.54.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli too brought up his half-century, scoring 59 runs in 44 balls, a knock which was laced with 1 four and 3 sixes. India, as a result, posted a target of 192 runs at the end of the first innings. Hong Kong, in response, lost the first wicket early in the second over in the form of Yasim Murtaza (9).
However, Babar Hayat provided a great start as he amassed 41 runs in 35 balls, including 3 fours and 2 sixes. Hong Kong were going pretty well until Ravindra Jadeja ran him out in the 6th over. Kinchit Shah scored 30 runs in 28 balls, including 2 fours and 1 six but Hong Kong couldn’t score runs as per the required rate.
In the end, they fell 40 runs short of the target. Ravindra Jadeja (1 for 15) and Yuzvendra Chahal (0 for 18) were brilliant with the ball but the likes of Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan proved expensive.
India vs Hong Kong Brief Scores: India 192 for 2 (Suryakumar 68*, Kohli 59*, Ghazanfar 1-19) beat Hong Kong 152 for 5 (Hayat 41, Kinchit 30, Bhuvneshwar 1-15, Jadeja -15) by 40 runs
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