And that’s a wrap from the 12th fixture of the Hong Kong Sixes between India and Kuwait! With that result, India finish third in Pool C and are eliminated from the main round. They’ll now feature in three bowl matches — first against the UAE in less than an hour, then Nepal later today, and finally against Sri Lanka tomorrow.
For now, this is Hiren Kumar signing off, on behalf of my co-commentator Karthik Raj and our scorer and analyst, Raju Khariya. Stay tuned — we’ll be back shortly with all the excitement from the bowl-matches!
Player of the Match - Yasin Patel
07:32 AM IST, 10:02 AM Local Time: A convincing 27-run victory for Kuwait as they defend the target of 107. Yasin Patel, the Kuwait skipper once again played a stellar role with three important scalps.
Kuwait got the best possible start to their defense as Yasin Patel had Robin Uthappa caught-behind off the very first ball of the innings. Dinesh Karthik came in and struck his first ball for a maximum but he was soon castled by Yasin. In the next over, India were reduced to 12/3 with Stuart Binny being run-out. Priyank Panchal who opened the innings along with Uthappa played a few handy strokes but he had to depart for 17 after holing out to long-off in the 4th over.
With the match going out of India's reach, Shahbaz Nadeem had some fun in the middle before he was bowled by Yasin off the final delivery of the fifth over. With 46 required off the final over, Abhimanyu Mithun struck four consecutive maximums before he miscued another attempted big shot to long-off to bring an end to the match.
Earlier in the match, the Kuwaiti opening duo of Adnan Idrees and Meet Bhavsar fell early. But the No.3 batter, Bilal Tahir struck the ball cleanly to score 25 off nine balls before he got out to Shahbaz Nadeem's bowling. Kuwait had lost their fifth wicket at 4.2 overs which meant their captain Yasin Patel had to bat lone. Yasin did that amazingly well as he helped Kuwait take 55 runs off the last two overs. In the process, he had also reached his fifty off 12 balls while Kuwait ended up with 106/5 off their six overs.
W OUT! CAUGHT! India Sixes are bowled out for 79! Fuller than a length ball, angling away on off, Mithun hangs back and looks to go big over long off but does not get the timing right and holes out to the man in the deep! Kuwait Sixes win by 27 runs!
5.3 A Idrees to A Mithun
6 SIX MORE! 3 in a row! Full and angling in on middle and leg, Mithun smokes it up and over long on for a maximum.
5.2 A Idrees to A Mithun
6 SIX MORE! Straight down the ground again. Very full and on middle, Mithun lifts it straight up and over the bowler for a biggie.
5.1 A Idrees to A Mithun
6 SIX! Full and into the stumps, Mithun stands tall and launches it straight down the ground for a biggie.