Pakistan Shaheens reached the semi-final of the Asian Games Men’s Cricket Competition after a comfortable victory against Hong Kong in the second quarter-final on Tuesday.
The batting line-up of Hong Kong was sent packing on 92 runs in the 19th over as Pakistan won by 68 runs to qualify for the semi-final of the tournament.
Among the batters, six failed to reach double-figures, out of which four were sent back to the pavilion on a duck.
Babar Hayat remained the top scorer for Hong Kong, having hit 29 runs, however, no other batter could stay at the crease.
Khushdil Shah took three wickets in his four overs in which he conceded 13 runs. Arafat Minhas, Sufiyan Muqeem, and Qasim Akram took two wickets each.
Batting first, the Shaheens lost a couple of wickets early on and continued to lose wickets in intervals. At one point, Pakistan were down five wickets after managing to add only 54 runs in the 9th over.
However, all-rounder Aamir Jamal helped Pakistan reach a respectable total as he hit a fiery innings of 41 runs off 16 balls that included four maximums and two boundaries.
He remained the highest run scorer for the national squad. Arafat Minhas and Asif Ali both scored 25 runs each as Pakistan set a target of 161 runs for Hong Kong.