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India VS Hong Kong Asia CUP 2018 – Match 4
Hong Kong will be hoping to secure a solitary win of their Asia Cup campaign against India after they suffered a massive defeat in their first game against Pakistan.
Both teams have faced each other just once in this format, in Asia Cup 2008, which India won comprehensively by 256 runs. While batting first, India scored 374/4 from 50 overs before bowling out the Hong Kong lineup for just 118 runs.
Talking about the Indian side, they have played nine ODIs so far (in 2018) and have won six out of those. They were recently defeated by England in England but despite this, they are favorites going into the clash. It will be interesting to see what combination do they opt for before the much-anticipated clash against the arch-rivals Pakistan.
On the other hand, Hong Kong were expected to put up a decent show but they were completely outplayed by Pakistan. There wasn’t much swing on offer in Dubai but Pakistan bowlers bowled stump-to-stump, ensuring no room to the Hong Kong batsmen. As a result, they struggled to rotate strike and ultimately lost their wickets.
Players to watch out for
Kuldeep Yadav (India)
Almost every pundit will be put Kuldeep on his list as a player to watch out for. The reason behind this is the fact that Kuldeep is a left-arm wrist spinner which batsmen these days don’t get to face a lot. The other reason is that he has subtle variations which are extremely hard to pick. In the recent series against England, Joe Root, one of England’s best player of spin struggled to read him until the third ODI where he scored a hundred and celebrated it with a bat-drop. In a nutshell, Hong Kong will have a tough outing against him.
Anshuman Rath (Hong Kong)
Just 20 years of age, Anshuman Rath is leading Hong Kong at the Asia Cup. Regarded as his side’s most dependable batsman, Anshuman averages a whopping 52.57 in One Day Internationals. So far, he has racked up a hundred and six half centuries in ODIs. His performance in the qualifying round proved to be key to Hong Kong’s progress.
Squads
Hong Kong
Anshuman Rath (c), Aizaz Khan, Arshad Mohammad, Babar Hayat, Christopher Carter, Ehsan Khan, Ehsan nawaz, Cameron McAuslan, Scott McKechnie, Nadeem Ahmed, Nizakat Khan, Kinchit Shah, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Tanwir Afzal, Waqas Khan
India
Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Khaleel Ahmed, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Shardul Thakur