Pakistan, Hong Kong out to grab the final Super Four spot
Cricket
Pakistan will take on Hong Kong today (Friday) in the Asia Cup.
DUBAI (Web Desk) – Pakistan will take on Hong Kong today (Friday) in the Asia Cup. Both teams are still win-less in the tournament so far and try to grab the final Super Four spot in today’s match.
Winless in T20Is in 2022 so far and under pressure after their defeat to India in their Asia Cup opener, Pakistan will still go in as hot favourites when they take on Hong Kong in their bid to avoid first-round exit in Sharjah on Friday (September 2).
Pakistan were let down by their batting against India, the rivals deploying the short-ball ploy to topple the top and middle-order and restrict them to just 147. Once the Mohammad Rizwan threat was negated - he has the tendency to explode in the slog-overs, going at SR of 211.39 since 2021 - Pakistan couldn t recover.
In part, that boils down to their relatively under-tested middle-order that has faced only 26% of the deliveries since the start of 2021 in comparison to their in-form top-three, who ve done the bulk of scoring (69%).
The onus would, therefore, again be on the middle-order to step up in the hour of need. And the prospect of toying with the bowlers at Sharjah - notorious for its small boundaries - should inspire a lot of confidence in this must-win contest.
That s true for Hong Kong too, who did offer a glimpse of the threat they can pose. India were only going at about 7 an over before the whirlwind knock from Suryakumar Yadav proved the game-changer in setting Hong Kong a daunting target. In reply, their batting didn t make it look like a one-sided contest either, as the expectations may have been from the apparent mismatch on paper. Pakistan, too, would be counting on it.
