Fourth place finish for Hong Kong at ACC Twenty20 Cup 2013

Hong Kong have finished fourth at the ACC Twenty20 Cup 2013 after losing to UAE in the 3rd/4th Play-off match by 32 runs.

Hong Kong's stand-in skipper Waqas Barkat won the toss and elected to field first against a strong UAE team that had been surprisingly beaten by Nepal the previous day. Hong Kong got off to a bright start and looked to be well on top when they had UAE at 4-25 within 5 overs with the dangerous Arshad Ali (4) and Amjad Ali (2) dismissed cheaply. Tanwir Afzal was the early destroyer for Hong Kong as he picked up 3-13 from his four over spell, including a double-wicket maiden.

But UAE mounted a strong reply and Swapnil Patel and Rohan Mustafa combined for a 56-run partnership in seven overs to resurrect their innings. Karan Shah grabbed the wicket of Mustafa (23) but his first over went for 11 runs and he never returned to the attack. Patil fell shortly afterwards for a well struck 34 from 34 balls, including five fours and one six. But more power hitting was to come from the UAE middle to lower order batsmen as Mohammad Azam whacked 30 from 22 balls before Amjad Javed went ballistic with 51 not out from 25 balls, including two fours and four towering sixes. Nadeem Ahmed had bowled a tight 19th over that conceded only three runs but the final over proved disastrous for Hong Kong with Javed bludgeoning 26 runs off the hapless Aizaz Khan. UAE had blasted 71 runs off the last five overs as they finished on 7-166.

With the momentum now firmly in UAE's hands, Hong Kong needed an equally strong riposte and they got one as Irfan Ahmed smashed 20 runs off Amjad Javed's opening over. UAE quickly switched to a slow bowling attack and with that the free flow of runs quickly dried up for Hong Kong. Irfan fell shortly afterwards, to Shadeep Silva's slow left arm orthodox spinners, adding only one more to his personal total. Courtney Kruger was elevated up the order in the absence of Jamie Atkinson who was resting after injuring his finger in an earlier match and he and Barkat added 14 more runs before Kruger became Silva's second victim.

Hong Kong was struggling to make any headway against the slow attack and the scoreboard pressure started to tell on the young Hong Kong batsmen. Nizakat Khan (5) and Babar Hayat (2) fell in quick succession to leave Hong Kong well behind the run-rate at 4-55 midway through the 10th over. Barkat and Anshuman Rath added 18 runs off 23 balls before Rath (13) was trapped LBW by Roshan Mustafa. Tanwir Afzal whacked an entertaining 16 from 12 balls before holing out to Mohammad Azam but his efforts weren't enough to redress the spiralling run-rate.

Barkat's effort finally came to an end when he became Silva's third victim of the innings - his 41 runs scored off 41 balls, including three fours and one six. Manjinder Singh's was next to fall - his debut innings for Hong Kong only lasting two balls as he was bowled by Amjad Javed for 1.

With a virtually impossible run-rate to overcome, Aizaz Khan (20*) and Nadeem Ahmed (6*) batted out the remaining few balls to see Hong Kong through to the end of their 20 overs and a final score of 8-134. UAE played the smarter cricket on the day and they finished worthy winners by a comfortable 32 runs.

The Man of the Match honour was awarded to Amjad Javed, who's brilliant batting at the end of the UAE innings swung the match firmly in their favour.

Score Summary: UAE 7-166 from 20 overs (Swapnil Patil 43, Mohammad Azam 39, Amjad Javed 51*; Tanwir Afzal 3-13) beat Hong Kong 8-134 from 20 overs (Waqas Barkat 41; Shadeep Silva 3-16) by 32 runs [Scorecard]

It was a disappointing end to Hong Kong's campaign after such a strong start to the tournament however they can take some solace knowing that their efforts have earned them qualification for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier to be held in UAE in November 2013.

On the positive side, Waqas Barkat and Irfan Ahmed were the top run-scorers in the tournament with 280 runs (average 56) and 223 runs (average 37.16) respectively, while Tanwir Afzal was the tournament's leading wicket-taker with 11 (average 10.18).