After an impressive performance against the cricketing superpower India in the group stage of ongoing Asia Cup 2018, Hong Kong skipper Anshuman Rath believes they can grow up just like Afghanistan with the right exposure.
Rath pointed out Afghanistan’s impressive rise in the international cricket, the team took only four years (from 2013 to 2017) to move on from an Associate member to the Full member status with the impressive performances.
After the impressive Asia Cup game against India, Rath said, “You look at Afghanistan as a prime example. Back in 2011 to 2015, they were performing like us – upsetting the odd team but going through a string of performances where they were getting bowled out for 140-150 on good decks. Just like we did against Pakistan.
Also read: Asghar Afghan: We want to win, show our abilities and talent
“With the right backing, they started to get better and better, training a lot harder, fully contracted – the professionalism was there. And now they’re pretty much about to top Group B in the Asia Cup. Today we proved that we are capable of it, and a lot of associate teams are capable of it.”
Though Hong Kong surrendered against Pakistan after getting all-out for just 116 runs that Pakistan chased in 23.4 overs after losing just two wickets, they used that experiences to become tough against India and fought till the end.
After restricting the Indian cricket team to 285/7, Hong Kong had a brilliant 174-run opening partnership but their inexperience batting managed to score 259/8 at the end of 50 overs.
Rath said, “It was just a confidence thing. You looked at the way we batted against Pakistan. You could tell we were a bit timid, a bit rigid, sort of ‘oh my god, we’re playing Pakistan’.
“When we restricted India to just 280, we knew it was a good batting deck but obviously India has the bowlers, but we knew that 280 was about par. Only just over par, I reckon. We had the batting firepower, we had nothing to lose. So, I said ‘game on here’.”
In the Hong Kong innings, the skipper and opener Rath led the side from the front along with his opening partner Nizakat Khan. Khan just missed his century as he scored 92 runs off 115 balls (12 fours and only six) while Rath played the knock of 73 runs off 97 balls (4 fours and only six).
Rath feels happy with his team’s performances against India. He feels they have proved to the world cricket what they can do but also feels they should’ve chased that target.
Rath said, “I think today was bitter-sweet. We really proved to the world what we can do. In saying that, we had India by the horns and really should’ve finished it off, if we are being hard on ourselves, which we should be.
“After the first 10 overs, we were 58 for no loss and I just looked at Kat (Nizakat) and said we can actually turn India over. When me and Kat were out there, I could tell that the Indian players were getting anxious. I think Shikhar bhai walked past and he said to Dhoni that 280 won’t be enough here, we should’ve got 350.”
