Hong Kong lost three wickets in five balls, and Malaysia won with eight overs to spare
Pavandeep Singh and Muhammad Amir took three wickets each as Malaysia beat Hong Kong by eight wickets in their opening Asian Games Group B match in Nisshin.
Sep 24, 2026
Hong Kong were 31 for 2 at the start of the sixth over on Thursday. By the end of it they were 31 for 5, and their Asian Games had started about as badly as it could. Malaysia’s left-arm spinners took the game away from them, and Malaysia chased 82 in 12 overs and won the second match of the men’s cricket competition by eight wickets at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin.
The margin is what Malaysia will care about. They won with 48 balls to spare, which leaves them on a net run rate of 2.950 in a three-team group where only the bottom side goes home.
The sixth over
Hong Kong chose to bat, and the first two wickets went early. Anshy Rath was bowled by Malaysia captain Syed Aziz in the first over, and Babar Hayat followed in the second. Both made nought.
Nizakat Khan had got Hong Kong moving with 19 from 14 balls, including a six, when Pavandeep Singh came on for the sixth over. His first ball got Nizakat caught. His second removed Hong Kong captain Yasim Murtaza, and three balls later wicketkeeper Shahid Wasif was gone too. That made four ducks in Hong Kong’s top six.
Shiv Mathur stayed for 39 balls and made 29, the only real resistance, but there was no way to score quickly against this attack. Pavandeep finished with 3 for 11 from his four overs. Muhammad Amir, another left-arm spinner, took 3 for 12 with wickets in the 12th, 14th and 16th overs, and Vijay Unni bowled four overs for 11 runs without taking a wicket. Hassan Khan Mohammad’s unbeaten 13 at the end at least took them past 80.
Two brothers did the damage
Malaysia had a wobble of their own. Nasrulla Rana bowled both openers in the second over, and at 14 for 2 the chase looked less straightforward than the target suggested.
It never got harder than that. Virandeep Singh, Pavandeep’s brother, joined Muhamad Syahadat and the pair put on 70 without being separated. Syahadat finished on 36 not out from 32 balls, Virandeep on 32 not out from 32, and they hit four sixes between them. Malaysia got home at 84 for 2 in the 12th over.
What it means for the quarter-finals
Oman are the third team in Group B. They play Hong Kong on Friday and Malaysia on Saturday, and the top two go through. The Group B winners play Bangladesh in the quarter-finals on 29 September, and the runners-up meet Pakistan on 28 September.
For Hong Kong the first part is simple: they have to beat Oman on Friday. Even then they would need Malaysia to beat Oman on Saturday, or to come out ahead if all three teams finish on one win, and they start that count on a net run rate of minus 2.950. A win over Oman would put Malaysia through. Lose it, and Thursday’s margin is what they would be leaning on.