T20 World Cup qualifiers: Hong Kong grab first win as Hayat blows Papua New Guinea bowlers away
- Babar Hayat scores 86 off 45 balls as Hong Kong chase down target of 185 at Bulawayo Athletic Club
- Victory not enough to lift Hong Kong into top two of Group B as Netherlands and PNG go through to semi-finals
Babar Hayat’s brutal display of clean hitting helped Hong Kong chase down a target of 185 to beat Papua New Guinea in their final group game at the T20 World Cup qualifiers on Thursday, but it just wasn’t enough to get them into the semi-finals.
In a thrilling run chase that went down to the final ball of the match, Shahid Wasif saw his side home by two wickets for their first win of the tournament.
Defeat did not prove too costly for PNG, who finished second in Group B on run rate after the Netherlands thrashed Uganda by 97 runs. Hong Kong’s victory left them third in the table.
PNG and the Netherlands now move onto the semi-finals alongside Zimbabwe and the United States, with the finalists earning places at the T20 World Cup later this year.
The main reason Hong Kong were in a position to win at all was Hayat’s 45-ball 86, which included six fours and seven sixes, most of which cleared the boundary rope at the Bulawayo Athletic Club by some distance.
There was plenty of support too from Zeeshan Ali (42), who came in when his side were wobbling at 78 for four and put on 80 with Hayat for the fifth wicket.
But the pair departed within four balls of each other in the 17th over. Hayat was first to go, caught at long-off by Lega Siaka off the bowling of Kabua Morea (three for 34), and Ali followed in exactly the same fashion leaving his side on 162 for six.