Anshuman Rath and Babar Hayat produced stunning performances with the bat as Hong Kong stunned Sri Lanka by just one run to finish seventh at the on Sunday. Having finished second in their respective groups during the round-robin stage, both Hong Kong and Sri Lanka advanced to Plate Cup semifinals.
However, losses in Plate Cup semifinals pitted both teams together for a 7th-8th place playoff match. In the semis, Hong Kong lost to Pakistan while Oman downed Sri Lanka. Sent into bat first, Hong Kong started in a blistering note with Hayat and Rath going bonkers from the first over.
After just two boundaries in the first over by Lankan Sangeeth Cooray, both the openers upped the ante in the second and there was no looking back. They were particularly brutal in the third over bowled by Chamindu Wijesinghe, smashing three sixes and two fours in a 29-run over.
Rath brought up his fifty in just 17 balls with a six over deep mid-wicket off Movin Subasingha in the fourth over, before retiring hurt according to tournament rules. While the fifth over only yeilded seven runs for Hong Kong, it was two sixes each from Nizakat Khan and Hayat in the final over that propelled them to 119/0 in six overs.
While Rath finished at 51, Hayat remained unbeaten on 44 (16b), Nizakat took 14 runs from his four balls he faced. In reply, Vishen Halambage started on a fiery note for Sri Lanka with 14 runs in the first four balls of the chase before being caught by Hayat in the fifth delivery off Nasrulla Rana.
More success awaited in the second over as Yasim Murtaza struck twice to dismiss Sachitha Jayatilake and Subasingha to derail Sri Lanka. Muditha Lakshan 58 not out and Cooray (24, 8b) did try their best but in the end Sri Lanka fell short by just one run.
Anshuman’s roots belong to Satyanagar in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. After his father Tarang left India for business, Rath was born in Hong Kong in 1977. Anshuman started playing cricket at the age of four and attended the West Island School in Hong Kong.
During his age-group cricket days, Anshuman played for Hong Kong U-16 and also represented Middlesex for their U16 and U17 teams. He finally made his Hong Kong debut in 2014 in ODIs and in T20Is a year later. In fact, Anshuman also captained Hong Kong in international cricket.
However, Anshuman retired from the Hong Kong national team in 2019 to pursue a career in India. Two years later, he became eligible to play for Odisha in 2021-22 domestic season as an Indian passport holder. But lack of opportunities in India forced him back to Hong Kong.
He returned to the Hong Kong squad for the Quadrangular Series in March 2023. In franchise cricket, Anshuman played for Edmonton Royals in the 2019 Global T20 Canada.
