Asia Cup | Litton, Hridoy star for Bangladesh

Litton Das and Towhid Hridoy’s match-winning partnership for the third wicket was a throwback to the early days of T20 batting, when minimising danger was nonetheless fashionable. The duo proved that the retro high quality it imbibed was nonetheless environment friendly as Bangladesh cantered to a seven-wicket victory towards Hong Kong on the Zayed Cricket Stadium right here to get its Asia Cup marketing campaign off to a successful begin.

They diligently tailgated the required price until the 10-over mark, with 74 runs on the board and Litton and Hridoy batting on an an identical 14 off 15 balls.

After two extra overs of circumspection and with the asking price nudging seven, Litton introduced out the reverse sweep to finish a 32-ball boundary drought.

Breaking the shackles

That opened the floodgates, because the Bangladesh skipper shelved warning for aptitude to smash 4 fours and a six within the subsequent 24 balls. However, he couldn’t impart the ultimate flourish, falling with simply two runs wanted.

His accomplice, Hridoy, accomplished the duty with a single, a becoming finish to a different one-sided contest within the event.

Earlier, Hong Kong exceeded its expectations after being requested to bat. Five of its batters had their pads on after they lined up for the nationwide anthems. It was maybe a precautionary measure as Hong Kong had misplaced three wickets off 14 balls towards Afghanistan a few nights in the past.

However, the No. 5 batter ambled in solely within the twelfth over, after Zeeshan Ali and Nizakat Khan had added 41 runs at a run-a-ball. It wasn’t a scene-shifting alliance, however a stodgy resistance that saved Hong Kong within the match on the midway stage.

Mix-up

Skipper Yasim Murtaza might have added heft to Hong Kong’s complete if not for a horrible mix-up with Nizakat within the 18th over, however even then, it could not have been sufficient.

The scores: Hong Kong 143/7 in 20 overs (Zeeshan Ali 30, Nizakat Khan 42, Taskin Ahmed 2/38, Tanzim Hasan Sakib 2/21, Rishad Hossain 2/31) misplaced to Bangladesh 144/3 in 17.4 overs (Litton Das 59, Towhid Hridoy 35 n.o., Ateeq Iqbal 2/14).

Toss: Bangladesh; PoM: Litton.