The 2023 Asian Games men's cricket caravan rolls on to its third day on Friday. The fifth match of the competition featured Cambodia, a side who had previously suffered a three-wicket loss in a thrilling encounter against Japan on Wednesday, and Hong Kong, who took the field for the first time in Hangzhou's Hangzhou's sprawling Pingfeng Campus Cricket Field. Opting to bowl first, Hong Kong dismissed Cambodia for a paltry total of 70 all in 18.2 overs, then it took just 5.5 overs for them to successfully chase down the target. Hong Kong will next take on Japan in their second and final Group B match at the same venue on October 1. Cambodia, with two defeats, are out. Catch cricket scores and key highlights of the CAM vs HKG match. (Scorecard | Full Coverage | Cricket News)
Hong Kong Win By 9 Wickets
Hong Kong are 31/1 after four overs
Hong Kong have made a fine start and require another 40 runs
Cambodia Are All Out For 70 Runs in 18.2 overs
Hong Kong require 71 runs to win this match.
Score Update:
After 6 overs, Cambodia are 27 for the loss of one wicket.
Toss Update:
Hong Kong have won the toss and elected to field first
Squads
Cambodia: Luqman Butt, Lakshit Gupta, Phon Bunthean, Etienne Beukes, Anish Rambabu, Te Senglong, Uday Singh, Ram Raushan Sharan, Salvin Stanley, Sahaj Chadha, Sharwan Godara, Utkarsh Jain, Pel Vannak, Gulam Murtaza Chughtai, Chanthoeun Rathanak
Hong Kong: Babar Hayat, Muhammad Khan, Hamed Khan, Shiv Mathur, Nizakat Khan, Akbar Khan, Anas Khan, Niaz Ali, Ehsan Khan, Shahid Wasif , Nasrulla Rana, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla, Mohammad Hassan Khan, Adil Mehmood
Cambodia will be looking to get over the line this time in what is a must-win match for them. Hong Kong, on the other hand, will try to start with a victory to strengthen their chances of knock-out qualification. The two teams are going into the game with contrasting recent performances. While the narrow defeat on Wednesday was the only match Cambodia didn't win out of their last four, Hong Kong have lost all four of their previous encounters; and will thus be hoping to get back to winning ways in Hangzhou on Friday.
There are nine teams in the group stage -- The Maldives, Mongolia and Nepal (Group A); Cambodia, Hong Kong and Japan (Group B); Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (Group C). The three group toppers will advance to the knockouts, where they will be joined by the continent's cricketing heavyweights -- India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Cricket was inducted in the Asian Games roster in 2010, in the Guangzhou Games, more than a decade after the sport last featured in a major multi-sport event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. In Guangzhou, Bangladesh prevailed over Afghanistan to annex the gold medal, while Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in the bronze play-off. Four years hence, Sri Lanka won against Afghanistan in the Incheon gold medal match, while Bangladesh set aside Hong Kong to take home the bronze.
