1ST T20I , AFGHANISTHAN Vs HONG KONG, GROUP B , ASIA CUP 2025, ABU DHABI, 2025 HIGH LIGHTS : Afghanisthan Started With High Victory Against Hong Kong .
Afghanistan outplayed Hong Kong to win the first Asia Cup 2025 match by a huge 94-runs margin. Hong Kong wilted under the weight of Afghanistan’s first innings of 188/6 as they only reached 94/9. Afghanistan recovered from a poor start to score a lot of runs as Sediqullah Atal helped himself to an unbeaten 73 at the top of the order and all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai slammed a 20-ball half-century. In fact, Omarzai’s fify was the fastest by an Afghan in T20I cricket. That’s the perfect beginning for Afghanistan in Group B, which has Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well. The leading two sides will make it to the Super Four. Afghanisthan Started With High Victory Against Hong Kong .
TOSS-
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat.
PLAYING XI
Hong Kong :
Zeeshan Ali(w), Babar Hayat, Anshuman Rath, Kalhan Challu, Nizakat Khan, Aizaz Khan, Kinchit Shah, Yasim Murtaza(c), Ayush Shukla, Ateeq Iqbal, Ehsan Khan
Afghanistan:
Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Gulbadin Naib, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan(c), Noor Ahmad, AM Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi
AFGHANISTAN-
Making the most of a drop, Sediqullah Atal hit three boundaries in the first over to provide Afghanistan with a strong start. But Hong Kong made some inroads with a pair of wickets – Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran both fell in consecutive overs – and a wicket-maiden from Ateeq Iqbal.
Under the smart seam bowling of skipper Yasim Murtuza, who varied his pace and lengths, Hong Kong managed to keep Afghanistan in check during the middle overs. While Mohammad Nabi applied his wily nous well to discover handy runs during the middle overs, Atal struggled to increase the tempo. Nabi and Atal put on a useful 51 for the third wicket before Hong Kong fought back again with Kinchit Shah taking two wickets.
While Hong Kong had done well to stop Afghanistan from running away with the game for large parts, four drop catches and as many missed run out chances would return to haunt them in the final few overs as the partnership of Azmatullah Omarzai and Atal cut loose towards the end of the innings. Atal had blasted Iqbal for successive sixes in the 17th, before Omarzai clobbered three big sixes and a boundary off Ayush Shukla in the penultimate over and raced away to a 20-ball half-century, the quickest for Afghanistan in T20Is.
HONG KONG-
The Afghanistan pacers removed both Hong Kong openers inside the first two overs, and the latter never recovered from that. An over later, Nizakat Khan was run out by a direct hit from Rashid Khan, and Kalhan Challu was short of a direct throw from Omarzai in the fifth over. Afghanistan too were largely sloppy in the field, dropping two catches in the powerplay and missing a couple of run out chances besides the two that they effected.
Although Babar Hayat was able to withstand the early onslaught, he wound up being unable to keep up the momentum that Hong Kong needed to have a realistic prospect of overhauling the target. He dispatched Karim Janat for a couple more sixes in the 12th over, but even that did little to trouble Afghanistan as a spin trio of Allah Ghazanfar, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad put a check on the scoring.
Hong Kong was playing for nothing really and they deserve to have taken the game to this long for some consolation. The lower order showed some resilience but it would tenable them to reduce the margin of defeat by any meaningful margin.
Brief Scores:
Ghoghanistan 188/6 in 20 overs (Sediqullah Atal 73\*, Azmatullah Omarzai 53; Kinchit Shah 2-24) beat Hong Kong 94/9 in 20 overs (Babar Hayat 39, Yasim Murtuza 16; Gulbadin Naib 2-8) by 94 runs.