Hong Kong secure second spot in the group despite defeat by Ireland

Hong Kong's attempt to secure automatic qualification to the World Cup as group winners came unstuck at the Abu Dhabi Stadium as Ireland grabbed qualification with an 85 run win.

The match got off to a late start as a delay due to early damp conditions at the Stadium meant proceedings didn't get underway until 2.20pm. Ireland won the toss and batted and openers Porterfield and Stirling got off to a steady start despite a couple early close shaves and as first Stirling took a painful blow on the inside of the knee in the second over then survived an inside edge that flew past the stumps and was beaten between pads and stumps as he backed away to hit offside. His real let off was when he was dropped sweeping low down at short fine leg. Despite these scares he and skipper Porterfield built the tempo using their feet well to find gaps and to stretch the field as their touch with shots maximised their opportunities to push the boundary riders for two's. Hong Kong juggled their bowlers to counter their tempo and would have been satisfied to Ireland down to 53 off the powerplay on what seemed a decent wicket to bat on. As the partnership pushed on they always managed to find a boundary which enabled them to maintain the pressure on the Hong Kong bowlers but when Nizakat Khan entered the attack in the 9th over he his variations and line managed to restrict the pair despite one well executed reverse sweep from Porterfield that raised through square to the boundary which was one of only two boundaries conceded in his spell and it was in Khan's second over it looked as if he had orchestrated a double breakthrough as first he had Porterfield caught at extra-cover by Waqas Barkat and then three balls later he brought about an opportunity to dismiss Stirling as he deceived him into chipping back a return catch but Khan was denied the opportunity to take the catch as he was impeded by non striker Kevin O'Brien, Hong Kong appealed for an obstruction of the field but after consultation the umpires adjudged the impact to be accidental and bot Stirling and O'Brien survived.

With Khan's control at one end Hong Kong managed to temper Ireland's progress despite Stirling looking to go from strength to strength and it was in the 15th over that Khan got his man as Stirling was caught on the long on boundary by Irfan Ahmed for a fine 77 off 46 balls. With Stirling gone Kevin O'Brien took up the mantle and showed the sort of stroke play and boundary hitting he is known for as Ireland pushed towards 200, as O'Brien took control the boundaries came too frequent for Hong Kong's liking and when the innings closed with Ireland on 207 for 4, Hong Kong had conceded 70 off the last 5 overs despite the intervention of wickets to remove Mooney and then Wilson (19) with O'Brien finishing on an explosive 62 off 27 balls.

In reply Hong Kong showed early they weren't intimidated by the target as Irfan Ahmed dispatched opener Sorensen's 3rd and 4th balls for boundaries through extra cover. This initiated keeper Wilson to come up to the stumps and with the next ball he pulled off a sharp stumping as Ahmed overbalanced trying to repeat the previous two shots. Not fazed by this early dismissal and despite a tight second over from Murtagh, Hong Kong maintained a high tempo with positive shots and hard running as skipper Atkinson and opener Barkat took the game to the Ireland opening seam attack. Atkinson taking Sorensen's 2nd over for 16 as he picked him up over backward square first ball, followed second ball by a four through wide mid-on and then a six over long on off the last ball of the over that saw Hong Kong up with the required rate. Barkat then joined in as he hit Murtagh for two fours the first as he gave himself room to hit high over extra-cover. Cusack was brought into the attack and he fared no better as 11 was taken off his first over with a boundary a piece for the two batters. Murtagh's 3rd over saw a big shift towards Hong Kong as it started off not how the bowler would have wanted with 5 wides from a ball shoved way down legside, the scoring didn't stop there as Atkinson struck a four and a six in the over in addition to two 2s to see Hong Kong race on to 69 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.

In the post powerplay over Ireland managed to pull back some ground spurred by the dismissal of Barkat who was caught at long on off Cusack. Nizakat Khan joined Atkinson and the pair knocked the ball around to keep the scoreboard ticking over as first Dockrell, then Johnston were introduced to the attack. Dockrell was immediately replaced by man of the first innings Paul Stirling and his contribution to the Ireland cause became bigger as with the last ball of his first over he remove the danger man Atkinson as he was brilliantly caught diving one handed by Ireland skipper Will Porterfield at mid-wicket as he looked to sweep. Nizakat Khan looked to maintain Hong Kong's position despite the loss of Atkinson as he fired a boundary of O'Brien but the 12th over saw Stirling continue what was to be a man of the match performance as he took two wickets in the over the first Khan caught brilliantly diving on the run by Shannon and then Shannon raised in again to take a catch at long off to remove Mark Chapman. From this point on Hong Kong lost wickets all too quickly. They disappointingly lost their last 8 wickets for just 30 runs as the batters were lulled into trying to hit the big shots instead of looking to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Ireland wrapped things up and their own qualification to the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, winning by 85 runs.

Hong Kong still did enough to remain in 2nd spot in the group and thus will take on Nepal on Wednesday 27th November at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, 10am local time, 2pm Hong Kong time. Matches from this stage in the competition will be shown live on Star Cricket.

Match Summary: Ireland 207-4 from 20 overs (William Porterfield 38, Paul Stirling 77, Kevin O'Brien 62*) beat Hong Kong 122 from 17.1 overs (Jamie Atkinson 48; Paul Stirling 4-10) by 85 runs [Full Scorecard]