After the seamers made early inroads, legspinner Rishad kept Hong Kong quiet

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Sep-20251:36

Jaffer: Bangladesh need to show consistency in selection

Hong Kong mustered a total of 143 for 7 in 20 overs against Bangladesh, after being inserted by Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi. They started shakily, with early wickets and a sluggish start for Zeeshan Ali (30) and Nizakat Khan (42) keeping Bangladesh in control.But as the Zeeshan-Nizakat partnership grew, so did their range of strokes. Their 41-run stand for the third wicket ensured their batting didn’t collapse like it did in the game against Afghanistan. Hong Kong captain Yasim Murtaza blazed away to a 19-ball 28, but a flurry of late wickets denied Hong Kong a late flourish.As Bangladesh’s players walked off the field, they exchanged high-fives for their effort in the first innings. Tanzim Hasan Sakib (2 for 21) bowled in the early 140kph range in his first spell, and accounted for Babar Hayat (14) and Zeeshan. Hayat was cleaned up by a swinging ball that started on middle and ended up going past his outside edge, while Zeeshan fell to a sharp delivery that hit the splice of the bat and popped up to cover.Taskin Ahmed was expensive but got the early breakthrough by dismissing Anshy Rath. He then removed Aizaz Khan in the final over.Rishad Hossain, the legspinner, was introduced after the powerplay, but Hong Kong countered him with sweeps and reverse sweeps. He finally got among the wickets in 19th over, his last over of the evening, when he had Nizakat caught at long-on. Next ball, he trapped Kinchit Shah lbw.Hong Kong scored 54 runs off the last six overs to get to a respectable total.