Defending champions Afghanistan won the ACC T20 Cup, beating Hong Kong by 8 runs in the final played at Tribhuvan University Cricket Ground in Kathmandu.
Batting first, Afghanistan posted a total of 125, losing all its wickets in the penultimate ball of the innings. Gulbodin Naib scored 57 off 50 balls, as Mohammed Nabi scored 24 quick runs towards the end. Despite Munir Dar’s 5 wickets, Afghanistan scored more than run a ball.
The chase was not going to be too easy, due to the presence of Hamid Hasan, who had only leaked a single boundary in the tournament so far. He bowled with pace and leaked one more, but snared 3 important wickets to earn his team victory and man of the match for himself. Hong Kong chase, despite accumulating at around the required run rate, fell 9 runs short. The regular fall of wickets did not help much. Skipper James Atkinson scored 35, but was often slow in batting.
Munir Dar, for his 11 wickets in the tournament, was named Man of the Tournament.
Brief Scorecard: Afghanistan 125 all out in 19.5 overs (G Naib 57, M Nabi 24, M Dar 5/23, N Ahmed 2/8) beat Hong Kong 117 all out in 19.2 overs (J Atkinson 35, W Barkat 22, C Kruger 17, H Hassan 3/12, D Zardan 2/21, M Nabi 2/21) by 8 runs and win the ACC Twenty20 Cup.
Cricket Nepal (cricket.com.np) provided live scores and commentary for the match. Click ‘Replay’ below to read the live commentaries.