Hong Kong and Malaysia claim first victories

Monday's fixtures in the ACC Twenty20 Cup saw Hong Kong and Malaysia kick-start their campaigns.

Munir Dar inspired Hong Kong to a 44-run victory against Saudi Arabia, at the Engineering Ground, with 54 not out from 28 balls and 1-11 from 3.4 overs.

Special mention must go to Saudi Arabia's Kashif Shafiq, whose 46-ball 70 was his team's only double-figure score out of 107 all out.

Dar had earlier received support from Courtney Kruger (38) and Waqas Barkat (25 off 8 balls) in Hong Kong's 151-6.

Barkat's late assault helped Dar put on 58 in the last 23 balls of his team's innings to swing the match firmly in Hong Kong's favour.

Saudi Arabia's reply never recovered from losing a wicket in the first over as they suffered three run outs and also lost captain Shoaib Ali to injury.

Hong Kong picked up their first win in Group B - after a narrow loss to Nepal in their opening match - while Saudi Arabia still await their first victory.

Malaysia had their first success in Group A when they beat Maldives by 19 runs at Tribhuvan University.

Hammad Ullah Khan (54 off 40 balls) got Malaysia's innings off to a good start before Suharril Fetri (42 not out) saw his side to 147-8 at the end of their 20 overs.

Hassan Ibrahim (3-24) and Moosa Kaleem (3-23) shone with the ball for Maldives but their fifth and sixth bowlers proved decisively expensive.

Maldives opener Abdullah Shahid (20 off 13) got his side off to a flying start in their response, but once he fell the required run-rate steadily increased.

Hassan Ghulam and Shahrulnizam Yusof both picked up two wickets as the match reached its inevitable conclusion.

Malaysia are back in action tomorrow (Tuesday) when they face Oman at the Engineering Ground.