{"id":20262,"date":"2025-09-10T08:05:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T08:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=20262"},"modified":"2025-09-10T08:05:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T08:05:52","slug":"afghanistan-dominate-hong-kong-in-asia-cup-2025-cricket-opener-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=20262","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan dominate Hong Kong in Asia Cup 2025 cricket opener | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__subhead\"><em>Afghanistan begin their Asia Cup campaign with a thrashing of tournament minnows Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Published On 10 Sep 2025<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\">10 Sep 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Azmatullah Omarzai hammered a 20-ball fifty as Afghanistan thrashed Hong Kong by 94 runs in the opening match of the Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan elected to bat first and posted 188-6, with opener Sediqullah Atal playing the anchor role with an unbeaten 73 on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 4 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/p>\n<p>His fifth-wicket partnership of 82 with Omarzai, who hit 53 off 21 balls, including two fours and five sixes, proved key for Afghanistan in the Group B fixture.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan\u2019s bowlers then combined to keep Hong Kong down to 94-9.<\/p>\n<p>Temperatures early on touched 40C (104F), but it was the humidity in the evening that tested the fitness of the players, who took regular drinks breaks.<\/p>\n<p>Hong Kong bowlers delivered two early blows to Afghanistan, but Atal stood firm to put on 51 runs with veteran Mohammad Nabi, who scored 33, as the two counter-attacked.<\/p>\n<p>Off-spinner Kinchit Shah broke the stand to dismiss Nabi, but Atal raised the run-rate with Omarzai, who hit his first T20I fifty \u2013 the fastest by an Afghan batter \u2013 with three sixes and a four before his departure.<\/p>\n<p>Hong Kong, whose fielders dropped five catches, were never in the chase after they slipped to 22-4 inside five overs, including two run-outs.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan\u00a0were playing less than 48 hours after their loss to Pakistan in the final of a tri-series in Sharjah on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Their next Asia Cup fixture is against Bangladesh on September 16.<\/p>\n<p>Tournament favourites India begin their campaign in Group A on Wednesday when they face hosts United Arab Emirates in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>India and Pakistan meet on September 14 in the most-awaited match of the Twenty20 tournament, which serves as a build-up for next year\u2019s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan\u2019s captain Rashid Khan, third from right, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Hong Kong\u2019s Zeeshan Ali [Fadel Senna\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Afghanistan begin their Asia Cup campaign with a thrashing of tournament minnows Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi. Published On 10 Sep 202510 Sep 2025 Azmatullah Omarzai hammered a 20-ball fifty as Afghanistan thrashed Hong Kong by 94 runs in the opening match of the Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi. Afghanistan elected to bat first and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[12469,8404,1144,130,9208,7784,7785,150,7940],"class_list":{"0":"post-20262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-cup","12":"tag-dominate","13":"tag-hong","14":"tag-kong","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-opener"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}