Abu Dhabi, 9 September (). In the first match of Asia Cup 2025, Afghanistan made a big debut of the tournament by registering a big win over Hong Kong. Afghanistan gave Hong Kong a target of 189 runs to win. Hong Kong could score 94 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs and lost the match by 94 runs.
Hong Kong, chasing a target of 189 runs, started very poorly. The team lost their top 4 wickets at the score of 22. The match for Hong Kong was over here. In the later overs, Hong Kong batsmen were seen playing for the purpose of staying at just 20 overs.
Babur Hayat was the only batsman to face Afghanistan bowlers. Babur was dismissed for 39 runs with the help of 3 sixes off 43 balls. Apart from this, all were flops.
For Afghanistan, Gulabdeen Naib took 2 wickets for 8 runs in 3 overs. Fazalhak Farukhi took 2, Umarjai, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed took 1-1 wickets. Two batsmen were run out.
In the match played at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bat first. Afghanistan did not have a good start and the team lost the important wickets of Gurbaz and Ibrahim Jadaran on a score of 26. Afghanistan scored 188 runs for 6 wickets thanks to the explosive innings of 53 runs played off 52 balls from Sedikullah Atal and Ajmatullah Umarjai’s 53 -run innings and 82 balls between the two. Umarzai hit 5 sixes and 2 fours in his innings. At the same time, Atal hit 3 sixes and 6 fours. Mohammad Nabi also scored 33 runs off 26 balls.
This half -century of Umarzai is the fastest half -century of any Afghanistan batsman in T20 International. Umarzai broke the record of faster half -centuries in 21 balls of Nabi and Gulabdeen, scoring half -centuries off 20 balls.
For Hong Kong, Ayush Shukla took 2, Kidil Shah took 2 while Atik Iqbal and Ehsan Khan took 1-1 wickets.
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