Five for Three, and the Match Was Gone: Ayush Shukla Settles a Low-Scoring Game Inside Three Overs

At the halfway mark of the first innings, it looked like Oman's day. Hong Kong had chosen to bat, and for a while they were comfortable at 62 for 2 after ten overs. Then Mohammed Al Balushi took three wickets and Hong Kong lost five for 34. A total of 121 for 8 seemed at least 20 short on any normal pitch.

Then Oman batted, and the match was decided in 13 balls. Ayush Shukla took three of the first four wickets, and Oman were 5 for 3 in the third over and 19 for 4 in the fifth. They never recovered. Captain Sufyan Mehmood batted through to 26 not out, but Oman finished on 80 for 6. Hong Kong won by 41 runs and recovered from their opening defeat to Malaysia.

Hong Kong's innings needed rescuing twice. Anshy Rath and Nizakat Khan were both out by 11 in the third over. Babar Hayat and Hafeez Khan then added 51 from 47 balls, the biggest partnership of the match. After that came the slide: 62 for 2 became 96 for 7 in the 18th over. Mohammed Al Balushi removed Babar, Shiv Mathur and Shahid Wasif for 17 runs in his four overs.

The second rescue came from Yasim Murtaza and Ehsan Khan, who added 25 from 17 balls for the eighth wicket. Ehsan's 16 from 10 balls included one of Hong Kong's two sixes. Those runs turned out to be the difference between a tight chase and a comfortable one.

The bowling made those runs look plenty. Shukla took the new ball and dismissed Mohammed Al Balushi, Waheed Al Balushi and Muzaffar Shiralkar. Then the middle overs were shut down. Mohammad Ghazanfar (4-0-10-2) and Yasim Murtaza (4-1-9-0) bowled eight overs for 19 runs between them. Oman had to score at more than six an over from the start, and in those eight overs they could not score at even two and a half.

This Oman squad is a young, largely inexperienced group. Their bowling was good: all five bowlers went at under 7.5 an over, Mohammed Al Balushi's 3 for 17 was the best return of the Hong Kong innings, and Sameer Othman's stumping of Hafeez Khan came when Hong Kong looked set to push on.

The batting is where the lesson lies. Losing three wickets for five runs against the new ball made the rest of the innings about survival, not chasing. Sufyan Mehmood and Abdul Jalil's unbroken 34 from 49 balls saved some net run rate, but by then the target was out of reach. Oman now need to beat Malaysia, and to beat them well, to stay alive.

Nisshin produced another low-scoring game: 201 runs from 40 overs, and only four sixes. The early overs favoured the bowlers in both innings. Hong Kong were 11 for 2 and Oman 5 for 3. The slower bowlers were hard to hit, and the one period of fluent scoring came from batters who had already got set. As the Japan and Nepal games had already shown, a first-innings total in the 120s is competitive here.

There is no Player of the Match award at these Games, but Shukla's opening burst decided the contest. Hafeez Khan caught Mohammed Al Balushi in the first over. Waheed Al Balushi and Muzaffar Shiralkar were both bowled. Oman's reply was over as a contest before the fifth over was finished.

His full figures, 4-0-23-3, look ordinary on paper. They were anything but. Hong Kong were defending a total that looked short, and he made sure Oman were chasing it with only the lower order left.

Our preview called Hong Kong "the overwhelming pick", and they won by 41. It was closer than our preview expected for the first 20 overs, though. We named Ehsan Khan as Hong Kong's player to watch with the ball. He went wicketless (4-0-20-0), but his 16 from 10 balls with the bat mattered. Our Oman pick, captain Sufyan Mehmood, delivered: he took a wicket and top-scored with 26 not out. We did not mention Ayush Shukla, and he was the one who won the game.

Group B has three teams, and the top two reach the quarter-finals. Malaysia beat Hong Kong by eight wickets on Thursday. Hong Kong now have one win and one defeat and have finished their group games. Malaysia play Oman on September 26, and that match decides the group. A Malaysia win sends Malaysia and Hong Kong through. An Oman win would leave all three sides on one win each, and net run rate would decide it. After this 41-run margin, Hong Kong would be well placed in that case. Unlock CricIntel Pro for Asian Games cricket analysis.