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The final spot at Asia Cup 2022 will be decided during the final day of the ongoing qualifier, with three teams still in contention to play India and Pakistan in the tournament.
Hong Kong began their campaign in the qualifiers by defending 148 runs successfully against Singapore thanks to a superb spell by Ehsan Khan (3/20).
Then, they defeated Kuwait to move to the top of the table. They will have to defeat UAE on Wednesday to make it out of the qualifier as the top team.
Kuwait posted 151/9 on the board in their first innings. Yasim Murtaza (46) and Nizakat Khan (50) laid the foundation at the top for a successful chase. Babar Hayat also scored an incredible 53 off 30 balls to ensure that the total was chased down. Murtaza's 2/11 also made him the best bowler for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is at the top with four points, with two wins in two games. Their net run rate is 0.716.
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If Hong Kong loses, it will be level with UAE but could lose out on the top spot to UAE due to an inferior run rate.
Hong Kong is yet to beat UAE in an official T20I match, with their previous encounter being in October 2019 in the T20 World Cup qualifier.
UAE is at the second spot on the table with two points and one win in two games. Their net run rate of 1.045 gives them advantage over table topper Hong Kong.
They succumbed to a shocker of a defeat to Kuwait, which was followed by a crushing win over Singapore which gave their net run rate a boost.
UAE has advantage of playing the later fixture and can calculate their needed victory margin if Kuwait beats Singapore in a massive way.
Kuwait is at the third spot with two points and one win in two matches. To qualify, they need to win big in their match against Singapore and hope that UAE manages a victory by small margin. Their current net run rate is -0.421.
A win of at least 78 runs or more or a successful chase in around 11 overs will put their NRR on a higher level than UAE.
Singapore is out of the race and sits at the bottom with zero points and wins. Their net run rate is -1.375. Despite their miserable condition, they can still play a role in deciding the qualifier winner and cause some chaos in the points table.
A win over Kuwait would eliminate Kuwait and make the final match between Hong Kong and UAE a de-facto final.
After succumbing to Hong Kong in the first match, they crumbled to 113 all out while chasing 161 set by UAE, which put a huge dent on their qualification hopes.
In the absence of Tim David, who is tipped to be called to Australia's T20 World Cup squad, Singapore has struggled for runs.
Asia Cup 2022 will be played in UAE, starting from August 27 through September 11.
The six teams are divided into two groups with India, Pakistan and a qualifying team in Group A; and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan form Group B. Each team plays the other once in the group stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super 4 round. The top 2 teams from Super 4 will qualify for the final.
India is the current defending champion, having won the 2018 edition of the tournament, its seventh title. It is the most successful team in the tournament's history.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
