Nadeem Ahmed claims five wickets as Hong Kong beat Singapore by 45 runs

Nadeem Ahmed claimed 5-35 as Hong Kong beat Singapore by 45 runs in an ACC Trophy Elite 2010 Group A match played at the Hubara ground in Kuwait today. The victory keeps alive Hong Kong's chances of reaching the tournament semi-finals, with their last group match against Oman on Tuesday, 6th April 2010.

Hong Kong once again lost the toss but this time they found themselves batting first as the Singaporean captain, perhaps a little low on confidence after three defeats in the tournament so far, elected to bowl on what looked to be a flat batting track. Hong Kong made a solid if unspectacular start with Nasir Hameed and Roy Lamsam opening the batting. The pair put on a 20 run stand when Roy was adjudged to have edged a ball to keeper Chetan Suryawanshi off the bowling of Shoib Razaak in the seventh over. Hussain Butt came to the wicket and he appeared to be in good touch following on from his excellent innings against Kuwait. He hit Saad Janjua for a sumptuous boundary from a no-ball and then smashed the next ball free-hit out of the ground over midwicket. However his innings was cut short when Narendra Reddy induced an outside edge with his score on 15 and when the same fate befell Ilyas Gull from the very next ball, Hong Kong were suddenly struggling at 45-3 after 14 overs. Nizakat Khan tried to play positively but after hitting two boundaries in his 14 runs, he spooned an easy catch to Reddy at midwicket off the bowling of Janjua with the total on 73.

Nasir Hameed continued to accumulate runs by pushing the ball into the gaps for singles and the occasional two. His new partner Irfan Ahmed looked to be in run-scoring mood as he dispatched a couple of leg side deliveries swiftly to the boundary. The pair moved the total on to 99 when Nasir adjudged LBW attempting a sweep shoot across the line off the bowling of Dharmichan Mullewa. Nasir, celebrating his 41st birthday, had scored 38 from 83 balls. Irfan (20 off 25 balls) then failed to connect with a leg side delivery from Parmodh Raja that clipped the outside of leg stump and Waqas Barkat (3) was caught behind off the bowling of Janjua. When Mullewa dismissed skipper Najeeb Amar for 1 Hong Kong had lost four wickets for nineteen runs in the space of six overs and they were now precariously placed at 118-8 after 33 overs.

Moner Ahmed was joined at the crease by Nadeem Ahmed but shortly afterwards Nadeem was then felled by a beamer from Saad Janjua that crashed into his rib cage and the big Singaporean fast bowler was removed from the attack immediately as the umpires ruled that the delivery had been deliberately bowled. Janjua's over was completed by Philip Childs. Nadeem bravely got to his feet and continued batting despite his obvious discomfort. He combined for a face-saving partnership with Moner that added a further 52 runs to the total. Moner, who smashed two fours and a six, was finally dismissed for a run-a-ball 44 as he got a faint edge on a delivery that he tried to paddle-sweep from outside off stump, giving Reddy his 3rd wicket and Suryawanshi his 5th catch of the innings. Nadeem then added a further 24 runs with last man Aizaz Khan before holing out to Parmodh Raja in the deep off the bowling of Reddy. Hong Kong had scraped together a total of 194 off 46.2 overs with the last two wickets adding an invaluable 76 runs. For Singapore, Narendra Reddy finished with the excellent figures of 4-28 from 8.2 overs while Saad Janjua (2-29) and Dharmichan Mullewa (2-29) finished with two apiece.

With a sub-par total on the board, Hong Kong needed a good start and that is exactly what they got as Irfan Ahmed pegged back Chetan Suryawanshi's off stump off the fifth ball of the first over. However Irfan then lost his rhythm and bowled three successive front-foot no-balls and then a wide and the first over finished with Singapore on 11-1. Budhika Mendis and Philip Childs then added 21 runs before Nadeem Ahmed got one to spin back and take Childs' off stump. Budhika and Munish Arora then combined for a half-century partnership with both batsmen looking in little trouble. However with the score on 80 after 22 overs Budhika attempted to loft Moner Ahmed down the ground but he failed to get hold of it completely and Nadeem took a good catch at long off. Budhika had scored 24 off 68 balls including 3 boundaries. Munish and Reddy shared another useful stand worth 27 runs and when Singapore passed the 100 mark in the 28th over, they looked on course to end their winless streak in the tournament.

Munish was batting strongly but shortly after completing his half century he holed out to Hussain Butt at deep midwicket off the bowling of Moner. Munish had scored 52 from 70 balls, including four boundaries and a six. When Nadeem grabbed his second wicket, as Reddy (14) was caught by Hussain in the slips, Singapore had suddenly slumped to 110-5 from 32.2 overs and the pressure was now firmly back on them. Nadeem got his revenge on Saad Janjua as he induced a wild swish across the line from the big man and his stumps were splayed. Irfan Ahmed came back into the attack and he was rewarded with his second wicket as Parmodh Raja (11) was caught by Nizakat Khan. With the run-rate starting to climb, the Singaporean tail-enders tried to hit the ball to the fence but with very little success. The end came quickly as Dharmichan Mullewa (10) was caught in the deep by Waqas Barkat off Nadeem, Varun Varma (0) was trapped LBW by Najeeb Amar and Syed Ali (0) holed out to a spectacular running catch by Moner Ahmed off the bowling of Nadeem.

Singapore had capitulated for 149 and Hong Kong were victors by 45 runs. The wounded Nadeem, who had had frustrated Singapore with the bat, had destroyed them with the ball as he finished with 5-35 from nine overs. Moner Ahmed also bowled well again to claim 2-14 from seven overs and Nadeem's brother Irfan picked up 2-34 from nine overs.

Nadeem was duly and rightfully named Player of the Match with the award being presented by John Long from ICC.

Scorecard: Hong Kong v. Singapore

Hong Kong's final group match will be against Oman on Tuesday, 6th April. Both teams now have a two win, one loss record but Oman has a superior run-rate compare to Hong Kong. This match will effectively be a quarter-final showdown as the winner of the match will qualify for the semi-finals and a likely match against Afghanistan.

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