Captain's innings not enough for hosts
HE has hit seven sixes to top the list of players with the most number of hits above the rope, but Stewart Brew would still not have been a happy man yesterday.
The Hong Kong captain is a player who puts team above self. While his own performance was flawless, the same could not be said for the rest of Hong Kong, who he is leading for the first time.
The problem for Hong Kong was their bowling department which was mainly instrumental in the two defeats at the hands of England and Pakistan.
'It is okay if one bowler gets hit. But when there are two or three getting hit around, it makes things difficult,' said Brew afterwards.
Brew, Rodney Bannister and debutant Mohammed Zubair did reasonably well with the ball.
But, unfortunately, England and Pakistan took the others to the cleaners as they totalled 88 for three and 98 for two respectively. These targets were beyond Hong Kong's reach, even though Brew was also in masterly form with the bat.
The elegant right-hander, who opened the innings on both occasions, hit the first delivery in each innings for six.
'We had a practice run on Thursday and it helped,' said Brew who finished the day without being dismissed and with an aggregate of 75 runs, including the seven huge sixes.
Having lost to England in their first outing, Hong Kong took the unusual step of 'dropping' wicketkeeper Pat Fordham for the Pakistan encounter.
'We thought we should have as many striking batsmen out . . . and Pat did the honourable thing and said he would stand down,' explained Brew.
Unfortunately it did not work. Having to chase the highest target set yesterday, Hong Kong were never in the frame despite unbeaten knocks by Brew (31 retired), Rahul Sharma (18 not out) and Bannister (20 not out). But the difference between Hong Kong and the others was the strike rate of the batsmen.
The territory face India and South Africa today in the Bowl.
'To beat these sides will be a great achievement and we hope we can play to our best tomorrow,' said Brew.
The spur for Hong Kong is that they will be allowed to keep any winnings they earn for finishing seventh or eighth. In the past the money went to the Hong Kong Cricket Association.
