Sloppy Hong Kong suffer bruising defeat against Papua New Guinea to miss out on own T20 tri-series final
- Zeeshan Ali hit a fabulous unbeaten 55 to give Hong Kong hope but was eventually stranded as Hong Kong left nine balls of their innings unused
- Opponents cruise to lowly target to set up final against Nepal, while the hosts will face its ‘A’ team in the curtain-raiser on Wednesday morning
Head coach Simon Willis said Hong Kong were guilty of a “really sloppy” performance, after suffering a chastening 10-wicket defeat to Papua New Guinea on Tuesday.
Hong Kong were indebted to Zeeshan Ali, who delivered a fabulous exhibition of clean ball striking in an unbeaten 55, for their total of 121, after slumping to 30 for six in the eighth over.
Zeeshan was eventually stranded, as Hong Kong left nine balls of their innings unused, and PNG cruised to a target that was a long way below par on a blameless wicket.
Nepal had earlier beaten PNG by 85 runs, and after Hong Kong’s meeting with Nepal on Sunday was lost to the weather, the hosts will miss out on the final of their own tri-series, instead facing Hong Kong ‘A’ on Wednesday morning as a precursor to the showpiece.
“We have to be honest and say we were really sloppy today,” Willis said. “If you look at some of the dismissals, we played across the ball a lot, after talking about playing down the ground, we had run outs, which should not have happened, and a leg-side stumping off a wide. I do not expect that from us as a team, going forward.”
Hong Kong made an inauspicious start when Martin Coetzee was caught behind off the last ball of the second over, and PNG left-armer Kabua Morea beat the defence of captain Nizakat Khan with the first delivery of the following over.
