Afghanistan vs Hong Kong – Asia Cup 2025 Match Highlights

Match Summary

• Match: 1st Match, Group B – Asia Cup 2025
• Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025
• Venue: Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Start Time: 2:30 PM GST
• Result: Afghanistan won by 94 runs

Match Officials

• On-field Umpires: Asif Yaqoob, Virender Sharma
• Match Referee: Sir Richardson

Team Scores

Afghanistan: 188/6 (20 overs)

Key Performers:

• Sediqullah Atal: 73* off 52 balls (8 fours, 1 six)
• Azmatullah Omarzai: 53 off 21 balls (2 fours, 5 sixes) – Afghanistan’s fastest T20I fifty

Bowling Figures for Hong Kong:

• Kinchit Shah: 2-24 (4 overs)
• Yasim Murtaza: 1-35 (4 overs)

Hong Kong: 94/9 (20 overs)

Key Performers:

• Babar Hayat: 39 (top scorer)
• Nine Hong Kong batters finished with single-digit scores

Bowling Figures for Afghanistan:

• Gulbadin Naib: 2-8
• Fazalhaq Farooqi: 2-16

Match Highlights

Afghanistan’s Innings

1. Strong Start: Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sediqullah Atal opened the innings for Afghanistan
2. Middle Order Collapse: Afghanistan were struggling at 119 for 4 after 16 overs
3. Omarzai’s Explosive Knock: The fast bowlers returned in the 17th over and it was go time. The next 18 balls yielded 60 runs. Omarzai went 6, 6, 6 and 4 against Ayush Shukla to bring up his half-century off just 20 deliveries
4. Partnership: Azmatullah Omarzai added 82 runs for the fifth wicket with Sediqullah Atal
5. Atal’s Resilience: Despite being dropped on 4 off 3 in the first over, then on 46 off 38 off his own bowling, Atal batted through the innings

Hong Kong’s Chase

1. Early Collapse: Hong Kong go joint-second for most wickets lost by a team in the powerplay in the men’s T20 Asia Cup with 4 wickets down
2. Run-out Chaos: Rashid Khan ran out Nizakat Khan for 0 off 0 balls because he took too long to realise there was no run off a Babar Hayat hit to cover
3. Poor Batting Display: Only two of their batters got to double-digits. None of them managed to score at a run a ball
4. Final Position: Their focus at 63 for 6 had shifted to playing the overs out and they did that to finish on 94 for 9

Player of the Match

Azmatullah Omarzai – Player of the Match: Very tough batting in the lower order, all about belief. The captain and coach have belief in me, was trying to back myself and was trying to hit straight with the ball coming on nice

Post-Match Comments

Yasim Murtaza (Hong Kong Captain):

“Feels like a dream come true. We know Asia Cup is one of the bigger tournaments in Asia, so we were really excited for that. I was not expecting that total on the board. At one stage, I was thinking they would get 150. Credit goes to their batters, especially Omarzai, getting 50 off 20 balls – that is a game-changer”

Match Conditions

• Weather: There was a contest between man and nature to see who was hotter and in the end, try as the elements could, they couldn’t match Azmatullah Omarzai’s fire. Even in 41°C heat, he burned brighter
• Pitch: The pitch, according to reports, has 3.5mm of grass on it, unusual for Abu Dhabi

Tournament Context

This was the opening match of Asia Cup 2025, with Afghanistan making a very comfortable win to start their campaign. After the net run-rate-boosting win over Hong Kong on the first day of the Asia Cup, Afghanistan have the chance to go clear at the top of Group B.

The comprehensive victory highlighted the gulf in class between the Full Member Afghanistan and Associate nation Hong Kong, setting the tone for what promises to be an exciting Asia Cup 2025 tournament.