So that’s that and it’s Pakistan that have secured a comfortable win by 68 runs over Hong Kong and made their way into the semis.

Opting to bowl first, Hong Kong got off to a terrific start. Ayush Shukla started off proceedings with two quick wickets of Mirza Baig 0 (2) and Rohail Nazir 13 (8). Whereas, Ehsan Khan got the better of Haider Ali 4 (4).

With the score being at 24-3, it seemed that Hong Kong had their tails up. Omair Yousuf 21 (21) and Qasim Akram 12 (16) did try to consolidate out there in the middle but lost their wickets in a single over of Anas Khan.

Mohammad Ghazanfar also chimed in with three wickets of his wrist spin and caused further trouble for the opposition.

Asif Ali 25 (21) and Arafat Minhas 25 (16) did strike a few boundaries in an attempt to get Pakistan back in the game, but it was the stellar knock of Aamer Jamal 41 (16) who got his side to a first innings total worth defending. Jamal was responsible for smashing 26 runs in the final over bowled by Shukla.

As for the run chase, the Pakistani pacers proved to be too quick for the Hong Kong batters to handle as there were several plays and misses throughout the course of the second innings.

Nizakat Khan 11 (11) did strike a couple of boundaries early in the innings but was soon dismissed by Arafat Minhas. Babar Hayat 29 (27) did top the charts for Hong Kong until he was bowled by Khushdil Shah.

The rest of the batters didn’t have much to offer. Khushdil Shah was the standout performer with the ball in hand courtesy his spell of 3/13 from four overs. Arafat Minhas, Sufiyan Muqeem and Qasim Akram chipped in with two wickets apiece.

Eventually, it turned out to be walk in the park for the Pakistan unit but the Hong Kong players will take plenty of positives from this fixture, especially from the first half off the game with the ball in hand.