Sharjah 2 September : Hong Kong captain Nizakat Khan won the toss, and chose to take the first wicket against Pakistan in direct shootout to win the last place in the Super Four spot of Asia Cup 2022 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.The team that takes the victory of Friday’s game will be the second team in Group A to make it into the Super Four stage while the team that loses will be taken out of the tournament.
Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the defending champions India are already through the Super Four stage of Asia Cup 2022.
The team that won Friday’s game will then go on to play India in the Super Four match in Dubai on Sunday.
Both Hong Kong and Pakistan, playing each for the first time in T20Is for men are both unchanged in their squads from their defeats to India.
“We are extremely adept at following.We’ll ensure today that we adhere to our strategies and implement them.When we play in Hong Kong, we play on low, slow wickets.It’s very similar to Hong Kong, and also we rely on spin.We bowled until the 13th over.
Today we have a well-planned game strategy and I am certain that the players will perform excellently,” told Nizakat after winning the toss.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam said he wanted to bat first and was granted the result he wanted.”We could be batting first.We wanted to get some runs on the board, and then put pressure on them.”
Playing XIs:
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Shahnawaz Dahani
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (captain), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Zeeshan Ali, Scott McKechnie (wicketkeeper), Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar and Ayush Shukla
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