Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Farooqi and Omarzai shine as HK crumble in 189-run chase, 4 down

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: OUT! ANOTHER ONE FOR SHAH! ATAL HAS TO LEAVE!

A slow delivery through the air and Naib is dismissed! Caught by Hong Kong skipper Murtaza!

Naib c Murtaza b Shah 5 (8)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: BIG WICKET AND Shah strikes in his first ball! A length delivery, outside off and Nabi is deep and tries to go big, He cuts it, but ends up sending it to long off for a catch! Nizakat comes in from the ropes!

Nabi c Nizakat b Shah 33 (26)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: SHOT! Nabi begins the 19th over with a four, smacks a short and wide delivery by Aizaz for a four, over extra cover. Then he takes a single. Aizaz gets a dot and then Atal takes a single. Nabi hammers him for another four, beats short third. Then it is a wide, followed by a dot.

AFG: 72/2 (9)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Nabi goes full throttle here! Drives Aizaz for a four, in the third delivery, past sweeper in the deap. Then gets under the next ball, and slams it for a six over mid-off! Then he takes a single, strike to Atal. Aizaz gets a dot!

AFG: 56/2 (7)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: The fifth over begins with a wide by Shukla, and then Atal drives a full delivery in front of square, for a four, good shot! Goes through the gap! Then he takes a single, gives Nabi the strike. The all-rounder also takes a single and then a double for Atal. The over ends with back-to-back singles.

AFG: 37/2 (5)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: IS THAT A NICK! YES, IT IS! THAT IS ALSO A GOOD CATCH! TWO WICKETS IN TWO OVERS! ZADRAN GOES! HUGE MOMENT FOR HONG KONG!

Back of a length delivery by Iqbal, outside off. Zadran gets a nick, and Zeeshan catches it, good wicketkeeping!

Zadran c Zeeshan b Iqbal 1 (4)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Gurbaz retained the strike and began the third over with a six, shot! Is he back?

NO, HE ISN'T!

No pace by Shukla and Gurbaz goes for another big shot, it lofts and lands in mid-off where Nizakat catches it!

Gurbaz c Nizakat b Shukla 8 (5)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Gurbaz takes a single in the first ball of the second over. Iqbal gets a dot next and then is slammed by Atal, past a diving cover fielder, for a four! Atal got lucky again! Then he takes a single. Iqbal gets another dot and then he edges to backward point for a single.

AFG: 19/0 (2)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Strong start by Atal as he smacks Shukla straightaway for a four, welcome to the Hong Kong bowler. Pulled behind square! Shukla responds with back-to-back dots!

OH NO! DROPPED! THAT WAS CARRIED NICELY AND YOU WOULD HAVE EXPECTED THE SLIP FIELDER TO HOLD ON TO IT! Towards the off stump, Atal pushes, but edges it to the skipper Murtaza at the slips, for an easy catch! He drops it! Atal responds with a four, shot, checked-drive over mid-on! Ends the opening over with a four, got lucky there! The fine leg fielder goes for it, dives, but the ball goes past him and trickles to the boundary!

AFG: 12/0 (1)

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Meanwhile, HK captain Yasim Murtaza said, "We wanted to bowl first. I am happy to bowl. We worked hard to get here. We played good cricket in the qualifiers. As a captain I am looking forward to see how Kalhan Challu will do on the big stage."

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Speaking after the toss, AFG skipper Rashid said, "We would like to bat first. It looks like a good wicket to put runs on the board, good total on the board will help the bowlers. In T20 it does not matter if you win the toss or not, but you have to give yourself the best opportunity to pick wickets in the middle period. It is already behind us, we are well focussed on the game today, even if we had won the final we would have focussed on the game today and how to win. Just one change - Gulbadin is back.."

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Speaking ahead of the tournament, AFG head coach Jonathan Trott said, "We've perhaps been a bit too reliant on Gurbaz and Ibrahim to get runs. Nobody else has got runs. And we need to find a reason for that. We need to get more batters in who are going to score runs and be more consistent like the openers have been and give us a chance in games. So that's the project for going forward. We've got to find batters who can bat in the middle order in T20 cricket."

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong LIVE SCORE, Asia Cup 2025: Afghan skipper Rashid Khan slammed the organisers for holding the Asia Cup 2025 press conference in Dubai, hours before the opener vs Hong Kong. Rashid revealed that he and Hong Kong skipper Yasim Murtaza had to travel almost one and hours immediately after the press conference, to play in the game.

"I don’t think this press conference is ideal, that we have to travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai and back on game day. But we have to be professional and be strong. I have travelled between cities and played matches within hours. In other countries, you travel 3-4 hours to keep playing. You have to be mentally prepared, and that is about being professional. For us, it’s important to keep giving 100% and doing the best we can and leaving everything else to the side," he said.

Ahead of the tournament, Hong Kong opener Anshuman Rath told ESPNcricinfo, "I'm someone who enjoys cricket because of the camaraderie, the team environment. In Odisha, I just wasn't feeling it. I remember once being made fun of for eating rice and dal with a spoon. It sounds silly, but when you have no one to talk to, no support system, those things hit you hard. No matter what level you play, if you're not enjoying it or you're not in the right frame of mind you're wasting your time."

"So I called my dad, literally almost in tears being like, 'what am I doing here? I just don't want to do it.' I had played two years of it, but didn't have anything more to give," he added.

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