Babar Hayat has smashed a 46 ball century as Hong Kong beat Nepal in the one-off "Friendship Cup" T20I today at the Mission Road ground in Mong Kok.
Nepal captain Rohit Paudel won the toss and chose to send the home side into bat. His opposite number fell for a third ball duck, with fellow opener Martin Coetzee the second man out having scored 31. This brought Babar Hayat to the crease, with him and Anshy Rath adding 76 for the third wicket.
Rath was the third wicket to fall, his score being 39, with Jamie Atkinson out for a duck to Rashid Khan in the next over. Hayat and Aizaz Khan then added 105 for the fifth wicket. Hayat dominated the partnership, with Khan scoring just 21 of those runs as Hayat began hitting sixes for fun.
He brought up his century from 46 balls with a six in the final over, hitting the next delivery for a six too to take his score to 110 before he was caught from the penultimate ball of the innings. Yasim Murtaza was dismissed from his first ball with Hong Kong having scored 212-6.
Hayat hit thirteen sixes in all, the second most by an associate batter in T20Is, behind George Munsey's 14 for Scotland against the Netherlands in Dublin almost five years ago.
Nepal started their chase reasonably well, and were on 117 when Rohit Paudel was dismissed from the last ball of the 11th over. From there they collapsed though, losing their last eight wickets for just 22 runs in 5.5 overs to be bowled out for 129 losing by 73 runs.
Aizaz Khan was the pick of Hong Kong's bowlers with 4-26, with Ehsan Khan taking 3-25.
Nepal now remain in Hong Kong for a T20I tri-series that will also involve Papua New Guinea. The first game will be tomorrow, and will be a repeat of today's fixture.