'We had India by the horns' – Anshuman Rath

After being beaten by eight wickets in their opening game against Pakistan, Hong Kong put up a stunning show against India on Tuesday, 18 September. At one point in the 286-run chase, they were 174/0, and looked primed to get an incredible win. Ultimately, they ended up missing out on a memorable victory by the narrow margin of 26 runs.

"I think today was bitter-sweet. We really proved to the world what we can do. In saying that, we had India by the horns and really should've finished it off, if we are being hard on ourselves, which we should be," said Rath, who scored 73 in 97 balls, after the game.

The Hong Kong top order looked totally comfortable against India, unlike what they were against Pakistan, where they folded for 116 in just 37.1 overs. Their skipper believes that the poor returns in their opening fixture were down to confidence, or lack thereof.

"It was just a confidence thing. You looked at the way we batted against Pakistan. You could tell we were a bit timid, a bit rigid, sort of 'oh my god, we're playing Pakistan'," said Rath.

"When we restricted India to just 280, we knew it was a good batting deck but obviously India has the bowlers, but we knew that 280 was about par. Only just over par, I reckon. We had the batting firepower, we had nothing to lose. So I said 'game on here'."

Halfway through the Indian innings, it seemed like the defending champions would run away to a 350-plus total on the foundation built by Shikhar Dhawan with his 120-ball 127. However, Hong Kong made a strong comeback with the ball, picking up wickets in a rush, to limit Rohit Sharma and Co. to 285/7 after 50 overs.

Their openers, Nizakat Khan and Rath, then made merry, notching up the second highest opening partnership against India since 2015 – 174; Aaron Finch and David Warner hit 231 in a game in Bengaluru in 2017.

"After the first 10 overs, we were 58 for no loss and I just looked at Kat (Khan, who scored a 115-ball 92) and said we can actually turn India over," said Rath.

"When me and Kat were out there, I could tell that the Indian players were getting anxious. I think Shikhar bhai walked past and he said to Dhoni that 280 won't be enough here, we should've got 350."

While Hong Kong were knocked out of the competition, they will be proud of the strong performance they dished out against the No.2 team on the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings. Rath believes that with exposure to the right opportunities at the right time, his team can make it to the next level in international cricket, like Afghanistan.

"You look at Afghanistan as a prime example. Back in 2011 to 2015, they were performing like us – upsetting the odd team but going through a string of performances where they were getting bowled out for 140-150 on good decks. Just like we did against Pakistan," pointed out Rath.

"With the right backing, they started to get better and better, training a lot harder, fully contracted – the professionalism was there. And now they're pretty much about to top Group B in the Asia Cup. Today we proved that we are capable of it, and a lot of associate teams are capable of it."