Hong Kong skipper Anshuman Rath is proud of his team’s inspired performance against India in the Asia Cup, but feels they should’ve finished off the job.
After being beaten by eight wickets in their opening game against Pakistan, Hong Kong put up a stunning show against India on Tuesday, 18 September. At one point in the 286-run chase, they were 174/0, and looked primed to get an incredible win. Ultimately, they ended up missing out on a memorable victory by 26 runs.
“I think today was bitter-sweet. We really proved to the world what we can do. In saying that, we had India by the horns and really should’ve finished it off, if we are being hard on ourselves, which we should be,” said Rath, who scored 73 in 97 balls, after the game.
“It was just a confidence thing. You looked at the way we batted against Pakistan. You could tell we were a bit timid, a bit rigid, sort of ‘oh my god, we’re playing Pakistan’,” said Rath.
“When we restricted India to just 280, we knew it was a good batting deck but obviously India has the bowlers, but we knew that 280 was about par. Only just over par, I reckon. We had the batting firepower, we had nothing to lose. So I said ‘game on here’.”
“After the first 10 overs, we were 58 for no loss and I just looked at Kat (Khan, who scored a 115-ball 92) and said we can actually turn India over,” said Rath.
“When me and Kat were out there, I could tell that the Indian players were getting anxious. I think Shikhar bhai walked past and he said to Dhoni that 280 won’t be enough here, we should’ve got 350.”
