In a humdinger of a match, Hong Kong notched up the last ball win over Afghanistan in the first playoff of World T20 at Malahide, Dublin. With this win, now, they have booked the ticket for India, the host of the Word T20 2016.
Hong Kong needed 16 runs in the last over, lost the wicket of Mark Chapman on the first delivery. The twist did not ended here as Babar Hayat hit two consecutive four and sixes. But, again, captain Tanwar Afzal was run out by bolwer Mohamad Nabi. One run needed from the last ball, players and coaching staffs were up on their benches, Afzal hit the ball of Nabi to midwicket, before the ball was fielded by the midwicket fielder, Afzal and Aizaz Khan completed two runs. The entire team along with their coaching staffs ran to the ground to celebrate.
Earlier, Afghanistan won the toss elected to bat first, posted 161 runs on the board with the help of opener Nawroz Mongal scored, who scored 53, and put up a 55 run partnership between him and Asghar Stanikzai.
In reply to Afghanistan’s 161, Hong Kong scored 98 runs losing just three wickets in fifteen overs. Jamie Atkinson and Mark Chapman laid the foundation of Hong Kong’s historic win, scoring 47 and 40 runs respectively, while with the ball seamer Haseeb Amzad restricted Afghanistan to 161 for seven by picking up 3 wickets conceding just 28 runs in four overs.
Afghanistan, however, will have another opportunity to qualify for the multilateral tournament when they will take on Papua New Guinea for the second palyoff.