Imperious Rath gets Hong Kong off to fast start in cricket World Cup bid
An imperious unbeaten 90 from in-form opener Anshy Rath guided Hong Kong to a comfortable seven-wicket Cricket World Cup Challenge League B victory over Singapore on Thursday.
Playing their opening match of the 11-day competition, Hong Kong reduced Singapore to 62 for five, before a gutsy 58 from Janak Prakash helped lift the visitors to a total of 171 in 46.3 overs.
The hosts slipped to 47 for two in reply, after losing Martin Coetzee and Babar Hayat to successive balls.
But Rath, who scored 107 in Sunday's tri-series final win against Uganda, looked like he was playing on a different wicket from the rest during a chanceless knock, guiding Hong Kong to 175-3 with 13.2 overs to spare.
The win moved Hong Kong top of the six-team competition, which is contested over three legs, ahead of a meeting with Bahrain on Sunday. They face Tanzania next Wednesday, before games against their main rivals, Uganda and Italy. Janak Prakash his out during the knock of 58 that resuscitated the Singapore innings. Photo: Elson Li
'We continued our momentum from finishing strongly in our last one-day tournament, but we can do better and we want to peak at the right time,' Simon Willis, the Hong Kong head coach, said.
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