A patient and unbeaten knock of 82 from Hussain Butt allowed Hong Kong to put their title defence at the Asian Cricket Council Trophy back on track with a six-wicket win over hosts Kuwait.
Boosted by the presence of skipper Najeeb Amar - who had missed the first game against Nepal owing to a visa mix-up - Hong Kong restricted Kuwait to 202 before successfully reaching the target thanks to Butt playing a valuable anchor role.
'Butt played his part to perfection. The plan is for one of our top-four batsmen to play a long innings. He stuck around and also got the runs. It was a very good knock,' Hong Kong coach Tabarak Dar said.
The foundation for victory had been laid earlier by Najeeb and the rest of the Hong Kong spin attack. After opening bowler Aizaz Khan had been taken for 15 runs in his first over, Najeeb opted to bring his spinners on from one end with Nadeem Ahmed given the honours.
Nadeem finished with two for 24 off his 10 overs, while Munir Dar grabbed two for 35. Najeeb went wicketless, but kept the pressure on with a tight spell conceding 29 runs from nine overs. The right-arm off-spin of Ilyas Gull created all sorts of worries for the Kuwait batsmen and he finished with superb figures of four for 33 off nine overs.
'It was a much better performance than our first outing against Nepal. Najeeb's return strengthened the bowling and his presence lifted the team's spirits,' Dar said. 'It was a 280-290 batting track and to limit them to 202 was a great effort.'
