Hong Kong vs Singapore: Anshy Rath's 95 Not Out, Ehsan Khan's Five, and Hong Kong Are Through

Hong Kong's afternoon at the Bayuemas Oval began with a wicket off its first ball and ended with three in the space of three. In between, Anshy Rath walked out at 0 for 1 and was still there at the end, 95 not out from 56 balls, while Babar Hayat gave him 44 in an 85-run stand. Hong Kong made 172 for 5. Singapore, with Manpreet Singh hitting 69 from 40 to go with his 3 for 22, were 117 for 4 in the 16th over and still in the match; then Ehsan Khan took it apart, finishing with 5 for 26 as Singapore were bowled out for 134 with two overs unused.

Hong Kong won by 38 runs. Ehsan Khan was Player of the Match. Hong Kong finish second in Qualifier B on seven points and go through to the 2027 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Regional Final; Singapore finish fourth on four and are out.

Harsh Venkataram had Zeeshan Ali caught by Kabir Zandani with the first ball of the match, which is as early as a plan can go wrong. Anshy Rath came in at 0 for 1 with Babar Hayat and the two of them put on 85 in 9.3 overs, Babar the aggressor with six fours and a six in 44 from 33 balls. Manpreet Singh then did what Venkataram had done at the start, only twice over: Babar caught by Harman Singh at 85 for 2, and Shahid Wasif caught by Harman next ball for nought, 85 for 3. Two in two, and an innings that had been running away was suddenly standing still.

Rath kept it moving. Reyansh Sharma went at 104 for 4, Manpreet's third, and Aizaz Khan was bowled by Venkataram at 131 for 5 with 3.1 overs left. Rath and Yasim Murtaza then took 41 from the 19 balls that remained, Murtaza 12 not out with a four, and Rath finished on 95 from 56 — eight fours, four sixes — having carried the innings from its first ball to its last. Ninety-five not out is the sort of number that nags at a batter for a day and then stops mattering, because what it bought has no asterisk against it. Manpreet's 4-0-22-3 was the one Singapore spell that held its shape; Pranav Sudarshan's four overs cost 46.

Singapore lost Suryansh Gulecha to Ayush Shukla at 2 for 1 in the first over and Riaan Naik, stumped by Zeeshan Ali off Yasim Murtaza, at 27 for 2. Surendran Chandramohan hit six fours in 35 and Manpreet Singh, batting as he had bowled, went to 69 from 40 balls with seven fours and three sixes. When Chandramohan was caught by Aizaz Khan off Ehsan Khan at 76 for 3 and Harsh Venkataram was lbw to Mohammad Ghazanfar at 85 for 4, Singapore needed 88 from 55 balls with Manpreet set, and the chase was alive.

The 16th over, bowled by Murtaza, took two: Aahan Vuthandam run out by Reyansh Sharma at 117 for 5, Harman Singh caught by Ghazanfar next ball for a duck. Murtaza finished with 4-1-12-2. Then came Ehsan Khan's fourth over, the 18th of the innings, and it took the last four wickets — one at 129 for 7, three more at 134 off the fourth, fifth and sixth balls. Manpreet was stumped by Zeeshan Ali, the same Zeeshan Ali who had been out to the first ball of the day; Kabir Zandani was caught by Nasrulla Rana; Akshay Puri was bowled and Jeevan Santhanam caught by Aizaz Khan off consecutive deliveries to finish it. Singapore were all out for 134 with two overs unused. Ehsan's 4-0-26-5 made him Player of the Match, and Manpreet Singh — 3 for 22 and 69, the second-highest score of the match on either side — ended on the losing one, which happens in cricket, and still feels unjust when it does.

There was no CricIntel preview for this match, so there is no prediction to hold ourselves to. We will have full pre-match analysis for Hong Kong's next assignment at the Asia Regional Final.

Qualifier B is complete. Saudi Arabia finish top on ten points, five wins from five; Hong Kong are second on seven; Malaysia third on six. Those three go through to the 2027 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Asia Regional Final. Singapore (four), Maldives (three) and China (none) are eliminated.

For Hong Kong, a final-day win settles second place and takes the arithmetic out of it. For Singapore, fourth on four points, this was the match that would have changed everything, and at 117 for 4 with Manpreet batting they were not far from it. Abdul Waheed of Saudi Arabia finishes as the tournament's top run-scorer with 189; Virandeep Singh of Malaysia is its leading wicket-taker with 11.