Doha, Qatar: Kuwait coasted to an emphatic 7-wicket win over hosts Qatar in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Asia Qualifier A 2023 match at the West End Cricket stadium in Doha on Thursday.
In the match between the two regional rivals, Kuwait had sweet revenge of their 1-run defeat suffered at the hands of Qatar in the recently concluded Gulf Cricket T20i tournament which took place at the same venue which Oman won defeating UAE.
Chasing a modest target of 124 in the allotted 20 0vers Kuwait were never in doubt of achieving the target and cruised towards the target thanks to a terrific start from the openers Ravija Sandaruwan and Meet Bhavsar.
The duo put on 75 runs for the opening wicket with Ravija, who was adjudged the man-of-the match award falling for his individual score of 29-ball 42, laced with three hits to the fence and two sixes.
The other hand Meet contributed with 28 runs from the 19 balls he faces and reached the boundary twice and twice set the ball soaring over the fence.
The two openers had their task cut out, use the feet against the slow bowlers and not allow them to settle down and that is what precisely they did.
Qatar ploy of yet again using the slow bowlers to open the attack and made it difficult for the rivals to score did not work.
The Kuwait openers were not frightened to use the feet and never allowed the Qatari bowlers to settle into a lien and length and that half the battle won.
Both the opens were confident in what they were doing and did it with aplomb.
Meet fell at the team total of 78, the fall of two quick wickets, both falling to Mumbai-born lad Himashu Rathod gave the hosts a glimmer of hope of an unlikely win.
One-down man Clinto Anto rotated the strike perfectly to make 19 in 25 balls, with all his runs coming in ones and twos.
At the other hand Usman Patel took the attack to the Qatari bowlers using his feet and not allowing the slow bowlers to settle down.
He remained not out on 24 off 15 balls which contained one boundary and two sixes.
Cliinto was the third man who fell to Qatari bowlers and it was Rathod who pick him up, and on the way claiming all the three wickets to fall in the Kuwait innings.
In the end, Kuwait won by 7 wickets with 26 balls remaining.
Earlier, Qatar who were out into bat by Kuwait and how handed international debut to Mohammad Ahnaff got off to a worst start with Saqlain Arshad going back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers in the first ball of the match.
Adnan Mirza departed for his personal score of ten and the team total of 19.
With the loss of two quick wickets, Qatar team management pushed veteran Muhammad Tanveer up the order and he stabilized the innings and also unleashed his trademark down the park hits to contribute 21 in 28 balls with one six and one boundary.
At the other end Imal Liyanage held forte with a 49-ball 46 while Jassim Khan, watched by his parents, used the long handle to good effect to remain not out on 31 of 26 balls which included one four and two sixes.
In the end Qatar managed to score 123 for 6 in 20 0vers.
Ilyas Ahmed turned out to be the most successful bowler claiming two wickets for while Yasin Patel, Mohammed Aslam and Sayed Monib claimed one wicket apiece.
On Friday, Kuwait clash with the Maldives in the first match at 9.00am followed by Qatar vs Saudi Arabia
2:00 PM which is palye3d on double leg round robin system.
Four countries, which also include Maldives and Saudi Arabia are vying for the one qualification spot from Qatar which are taking place in Qatar’s capital Doha from September 28 to October 5th and form part of the qualification process for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup
The qualifier from Qatar will join will join hosts Nepal, Oman, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia at the Asia Regional final which takes place from October 30 to November 5 in Nepal
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