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Hong Kong Team:
*Tabarak Dar, Afzaal Haider, Ashish Gadhia, +JJ Atkinson, TM Brown, KH Butt, Irfan Ahmed, CK Kruger, JPR Lamsam, Munir Dar, Nadeem Ahmed, Najeeb Amar, Skhawat Ali, wicketkeeperWaqas Barkat, Zain Abbas

India Team:
*MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, PP Chawla, G Gambhir, M Gony, P Kumar, PP Ojha, IK Pathan, YK Pathan, SK Raina, V Sehwag, I Sharma, RG Sharma, RP Singh, RV Uthappa

Faced with an intimidating target, Hong Kong’s batsmen were all at sea against Pakistan’s formidable fast bowling unit as they were unable to force the pace. A barrage of bouncers, especially from Umar Gul, discomforted the openers but they hung around for a while. Tabarak Dar and Zain Abbas scored respectively 24 and 26 while Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi got 2 wickets each – Pakistan won by 155 runs.

After a impressive century from Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful(109) and 83 from Raqibul Hasan, Bangladesh reached a pile of 300 runs. There was more reason to celebrate for Bangladesh as the left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak became the third bowler from his country to take 100 wickets when he ended Khurram Khan’s battling 78.

Defending a huge total, Javed gave UAE a flying start by taking ten runs off the first over bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza, hitting the first ball of the innings to the cover boundary before striking him over long-on in the sixth. But Mortaza had his revenge when he induced a top-edge from Javed, which was pouched by Tamim Iqbal. Indika Batuwitarachichi lasted only two balls, trapped by Shahadat Hossain. Arshad kept up the fight, punishing a couple of short balls from Mahmud. But when spin was introduced at both ends, UAE found the runs hard to come by. Mahmudullah, bowling quickish offbreaks, then accounted for UAE’s captain, Saqib Ali, who cut him uppishly to Shahadat at backward point.

Tournament openers usually feature two high-profile teams giving it their best to set the tone for the coming weeks, but the fixture tomorrow at the Gaddafi Stadium will struggle to live up to that billing. It won’t be fair to call Bangladesh minnows, especially after their two spectacular upsets in the last World Cup, but recent form indicates they have plenty of catching up to do. After thumping a dazed South Africa in Providence last May, reality hit them hard with 14 consecutive losses. A 3-0 clean sweep at home against Ireland turned out to be only a temporary respite, as they now find themselves on a seven-match losing streak. Bangladesh, who have everything to lose, will expect nothing less than a big win to reverse the trend and make the second round.

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UAE, incidentally, last played official international cricket in the 2004 Asia Cup. Their solitary ODI win came 12 years ago, against Netherlands in their maiden World Cup appearance. After clinching the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 title in December, beating neighbours Oman, they slumped to four defeats in the Pro Arch trophy at home in March, against English counties. Traditionally a team of Asian expats, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) has imposed a quota system to encourage more home-grown talent by including four locals in the squad.

Bangladesh Team: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Nazimuddin, 3 Mohammad Ashraful (capt), 4 Raqibul Hasan, 5 Alok Kapali, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Farhad Reza , 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Dolar Mahmud

UAE Team: Saqib Ali (capt), Fahad Alhashmi, Alawi Shukri, Aman Ali, Amjad Ali (wk), Amjad Javed, Arshad Ali, Indika Batuwitarachchi, Nizel Fernandes, Khurram Khan, Mohammad Tauqir, Salman Farooq, Shadeep Silva, Vikrant Shetty, Zahid Shah

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Recently Pakistan won Kitply Cup in Bangladesh defeating rival India after bouncing back 140 runs defeat in their group match – biggest margin Pakistan have ever lost. Pakistan have dropped their wicket-keeper and opener Kamran Akmal due to rather bad performance behind the wicket and added few new faces – Saeed Ajmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mansoor Ajmad and Nasir Jamshed. Pakistan has won it’s last ten matches in Pakistan against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

However, Hong Kong, on the other hand, will use this match against Pakistan, and the next against India, to get a feel of what it’s like to mix with the big boys. They will use this platform as prep for their next tournament, the Asian Cricket Council Trophy, where they compete against opposition of more or less equal strength. Their last one-day internationals were in the 2004 Asia Cup, when they lost to Pakistan and Bangladesh by a margin of more than 100 runs.