It’s the final match of the 2022 Asia Cup Group Stages and if you’d like some top Pakistan vs Hong betting tips in this Group A match, you’re about to get them.
Our online cricket betting analysis of this match also includes everything you need to know for match at Sharjah on Friday, September 2, with a start time of 7.30 pm IST.
My cricket betting tips are below and rather than playing the straight winner market (I’ll explain why there’s no point playing it), I’m going to focus on the handicap market, where I believe Hong Kong can put on a good display and make it a relatively close game.
Recommended Bet: Back Hong Kong on the handicap market (+5.5 wickets, 49.5 runs) @ 1.85 with Betway.
Sites offering online betting on this game are only giving odds of 1.02 for Pakistan to win and it would be a monumental shock if they were to lose this match. Not just because of the gulf in quality but also because it would mean Pakistan would be out.
And as we explain below, Hong Kong put in an impressive performance against India.
As we also say below, had Sky Yadav not played a truly superb knock for India and Hong Kong may have dreamt of causing what would have been just about the greatest upset ever in international cricket.
That could tempt us into doing one of two things: either backing Hong Kong if they get to chase at huge odds and hope for an almighty upset.
Or hope they have Pakistan in trouble and try to get around 1.4 on Pakistan in Live Betting.
However, that’s quite a lot of ‘ifs and buts’ and after already doing so ahead of the India vs Hong Kong match, we’ll decide not to play the match winner market at all.
Instead, Betway’s match handicap market provides a good alternative. They make it 1.85 that Hong Kong can come closer than the match odds would suggest.
That would happen if when chasing, HK come within 45.5 runs of Pakistan’s total. Or if defending, Pakistan win while losing more than four wickets to get to their total.
This market, which we don’t often play, looks the way to go.
Our Betway review explains what we like about this betting site and why it’s one of the ones we recommend the most.
Recommended Bet: Back Shadab Khan to be man of the match @ 11.0 with Betway
If we’ve made peace with the fact Pakistan are almost certain to win, although not that comfortably, as per the bet above, then it makes sense to only focus on Pakistan players for man of the match.
Sure, openers Azam (5.5) and Rizwan (6.0) are obvious places to start but then again, they’re so obvious that they’re the clear favourites.
If they bat first and one gets to 50 or 60, they’ll have every chance. But these are tough pitches and Hong Kong can bowl.
Haris Rauf (8.0) and Dahani (9.0) could blow them away with pace but I prefer the chances of Shadab Khan.
The world-class spinner can have the Hong Kong batsmen in all sorts of trouble and could be good for 2-3 wickets without conceding many.
Given that for good effect he might come in at five or six and smash a few, he looks a great bet at 11.0.
They lost to India on Sunday and of course, that’s not something they like doing. But they shouldn’t be too hard on themselves.
Their star batsman Babar Azam got out cheaply and worse still, their loss of the toss meant they were at a disadvantage before the first ball was bowled.
Why? Because as we know all too well, chasing in Dubai is the way to go and the side doing so is instantly in the driving seat.
They actually bowled pretty well with Shadab Khan and Naseem Shah nice and economical, while Mohammad Nawaz took three wickets.
He did admittedly also concede 33 runs in a low-scoring game but that was just because India’s batters were going for broke at the death and he just happened to bowl the last over.
But if there’s one thing they need to look at it’s their middle-order.
They’re too reliant on the Top 3 of Rizwan, Azam and Zahman and those after them seem to get bogged down, not knowing whether to be aggressive or just rotate the strike.
In the end, they did neither.
They should be thankful for Shahnawaz Dwani’s 16 off 6 batting at number 11 or they wouldn’t have had much to defend at all.
One thing they can do is bat Zahman as an opener, ask him to be more aggressive in the Powerplay overs and have either Rizwan or Azam (probably Azam) batting at three.
In any case, that defeat to India may not make too much difference. Assuming they win this as heavy favourites, they’re in the next round anyway.
Pakistan’s Likely XI
Zahman, Rizwan, Azam, Ahmed, K Shah, A Ali, S Khan, Nawaz, Rauf, N Shah, Dawani.
Hong Kong’s Recent Form
Hong Kong can be extremely proud of their performance against India.
Yes, they lost. Of course, they did, they were around the 40.0 mark to win, but they put in a plucky performance.
For about 16 overs bowling first they restricted India.
That superstar batsmen like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli (yes he scored 59 but it was hardly a fluent innings) didn’t get going shows you how well they bowled.
In the end it was left to Sky Yadav to play a truly brilliant knock of 68 off 26. But if he hadn’t, and India had posted around 160, who knows what might have happened?
After all, HK managed to score 152 from their 20 overs in reply. They finished 40 runs short but did a lot better than many would have thought.
Babar Hayat, Zeeshan Ali and Scott McKechnie all batted well but they were just chasing too many in the end.
Hong Kong’s Likely XI
N Khan, Murtaza, Hayat, Shah, A Khan, Z Ali, S McKechnie, H Arshad, E Khan, A Shukla, M Ghazanfar.
Venue & Conditions
We’re at Sharjah for this one.
The only match of played here so far saw Bangladesh post 127, which in the end was chased by Afghanistan.
So it’s a tough batting track and getting to 145 will be a pretty competitive score.
Chasing is an advantage as it always is in the UAE, so the skipper winning the toss will probably want to bowl first.
But chasing may not be quite as much an advantage here as it is in Dubai.
