Suryakumar Yadav blazed away to a blistering half-century as he blasted an unbeaten 68 off 26 in the company of a solid Virat Kohli who peeled of a fifty of his own as India posted a challenging 192/2 against Hong Kong in their second match of the Asia Cup 2022 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
Suryakumar belted six fours and as many sixes while Kohli struck one four and three sixes in his 44-ball 59* with the pair adding 98 runs for the third wicket.
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Batting first, KL Rahul and captain Rohit Sharma though made a cautious start.
Rohit soon opened up with a couple of fours and a six but his innings was cut short by 19-year-old pacer Ayush Shukla who outfoxed him with a slower one to have him caught on 21 off 13.
Rahul’s struggled continued as he made 36 off 39 having registered a duck against Pakistan on Sunday. Kohli though was solid and anchored the Indian innings.
Although Rahul and Kohli added 56 runs for the second wicket but consumed 49 deliveries as well.
It was Suryakumar who provided the much-needed acceleration after walking in to bat with the scorecard reading 94/2 in 13 overs. For Hong Kong, Shukla and Mohammad Ghazanfar took a wicket each.
Playing their first match of the tournament, Hong Kong captain Nizakat Khan won the toss and opted to bowl first. They went with the same team that defeated UAE in Oman during the qualifying tournament.
On the other hand, India made one change from their eleven that beat Pakistan in a last-over thriller. Hardik Pandya, whose all-round show powered them to a five-wicket win, was rested and in his place Rishabh Pant was given a go.
A win tonight will make India the second team to have qualified for the Super Four stage. On Tuesday, Afghanistan stunned Bangladesh in Sharjah to become the first team to progress to the next round.
Playing XIs
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (captain), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Ayush Shukla, Mohammad Ghazanfar
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
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