Sport/ Hong Kong

Hong Kong get off to a flying start in ICC World Cup qualifiers

City begin their campaign by outplaying fancied Scotland

Hong Kong were given a solid foundation by opener Irfan Ahmed who made 75 against Scotland. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong started their ICC World Cup (50 overs) qualifying campaign in great style in New Zealand on Monday, making "people sit up and take notice" with a stunning 17-run win over fancied Scotland.

A superb all-round performance in their pool A opener in Queenstown showed the Hong Kong team were genuine contenders in the tournament which will decide the two berths for associate members at the 2015 cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

"This is a great result for Hong Kong which will make people sit up and take notice of us," ecstatic Hong Kong Cricket Association chairman Mike Walsh said.

I hope this will instil the guys with the confidence they need to go forward from here and reassure them they really are good enough to create something special Mike Walsh, Hong Kong Cricket Association chairman

"I hope this will instil the guys with the confidence they need to go forward from here and reassure them they really are good enough to create something special and they deserve to be mixing it in this level of company."

HKCA secretary John Cribbin said: "It is the ideal start to the campaign with two points in the bag towards qualification for the Super Six stage. That's the first objective and we are delighted the lads have downed one of the fancied and seeded sides."

Hong Kong's first task will be to finish in the top three in pool A, which also comprises Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Nepal, and qualify for the Super Six stage. UAE beat Nepal by 102 runs on Monday.

Put into bat by Scotland, Hong Kong reached 263 for seven and were given a solid foundation by opener Irfan Ahmed (75), skipper Jamie Atkinson (27) and Mark Chapman (36) before a final flourish by the middle-order and tail produced more than 100 runs in the last 12 overs.

"We are not here just to make up numbers," said elated player-coach Mark Wright. "The earlier win against Kenya [in the warm-up matches] showed the guys that they can do it and this win will boost our confidence even higher.

"The key to winning was putting a good total on the board. Irfan batted beautifully and he gave us the platform we needed and we had wickets in hand going into the final stages of our innings," Wright said.

"I always knew we had fantastic strikers of the ball from one to 11 and today the lower order also came to the party."

A rearguard action from Preston Mommsen (118) briefly looked threatening, but left-arm spinner Nadeem Ahmed completed a good bowling performance, taking four for 37.