Dhaka – Hosts Bangladesh made a flying start in the eight-nation ACC Emerging Teams Cup’2019 beating Hong Kong by nine wickets in one of the four opening day’s matches at BKSP ground-4 in Savar on Thursday.
In the other opening day’s matches, Oman made the biggest upset beating holders Sri Lanka by four wickets at the academy ground of Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium in Cox’s Bazar, India defeated Nepal by seven wickets at BKSP ground-3 while Pakistan outplayed Afghanistan by eight wickets at the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Main Stadium in Cox’s Bazar.
Sent into bat first, Hong Kong scored 164 for 9 in stipulated 50 overs, featuring 51 runs in the 6th wicket stand by Haroon Arshad and captain Aizaz Khan.
Number seven Haroon Arshad scored the team highest 35 runs off 33 balls featuring three boundaries and on over boundary, captain Aizaz Khan contributed 37-ball 24 runs, followed by KD Shah (24), Wajid Shah (17) C Mc Auslan (14).
Sumon Khan of Bangladesh picked up four wickets for 33 runs while Mehedi Hasan took two for 23.
In reply, Bangladesh faced no trouble to reach their target scoring 166 runs for loss of only one wicket in just 24.1 overs featuring 94 runs in the opening stand by Mohammad Naim and Soumya Sarkar. Soumya was the man of the match.
National opener Soumya Sarkar hammered an unconquered 84 runs off 74 deliveries hitting nine fours and three sixes, promising opener Mohammad Naim, who earned the appreciation from Cricket Pundits for his brilliant show against India in the just concluded T20 series, scored run-a-ball 52 hitting eight boundaries.
Captain Najmul Hossain Shanta was the lone Bangladesh batsman backed to the pavilion scoring run-a-ball 22 hitting two sixes.
Ehsan Khan grabbed the lone Bangladesh wicket conceding 39 runs.
Earlier, Bangladesh was placed in Group B along with runners-up India, Hong Kong and Nepal while Group A team comprises defending champions Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Oman.
In the remaining group matches, Bangladesh will play India on November 16 and Nepal on November 18, both at BKSP (Ground 3).
The top two teams from each of the group will play semi-finals on November 20 and 21 respectively while the final will be held on November 23, all at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.UNB
