The Hard Work Has Paid Off, Says Hong Kong Captain Anshuman Rath

“Beating both ODI nations (UAE and Nepal) quite comprehensively in this tournament, and beating one of them twice, just sort of explains how we play our cricket. And hopefully, to show the rest of the world that the standard of Associate cricket has improved over the last couple of years.”

Aizaz Khan, the Hong Kong paceman who finished with brilliant figures of 5/28 in the final, revealed how two months’ training before the qualifiers helped them made the cut for the main tournament, which features Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka: “Obviously, we had a really bad tournament in Zimbabwe at the World Cup qualifiers, we lost our one-day status and it was really bad.

“After that, we worked really hard for this Asia Cup qualifiers. We worked really hard for two months back in Hong Kong.

“Coming here, we wanted to qualify for the Asia Cup, and we know we had a better team than we had performed in Zimbabwe. I think the way the guys played in the qualifier was amazing. It was a great tournament for us. Feels really good.”