Mongolia Vs Maldives, Asian Games 2023 Cricket: Azin Rafeeq Shines As Maldives Knock Mongolia Out - As It Happened

Mongolia's greatest cricketing experience, or rather, experiment has turned out to be a nightmare. Having joined the International Cricket Council (ICC) as an Associate Member in July 2021, Mongolia's men's national team were pitted against Nepal in their T20 International debut at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou. And they lost by 273 runs. And on Thursday, they suffered a nine-wicket defeat against the Maldives, thus ending their maiden Asiad cricket campaign with two defeats in two. Maldives, on the contrary, started their 2023 Asian Games journey on a positive note. Azin Rafeeq starred with both bat and ball for the Maldives. In the Group A match at Pingfeng Campus Cricket Field, Hangzhou, Maldives first dismissed Mongolia for 60 all out, then chased the target in just 6.4 overs to record a facile nine-wicket win. Catch key highlights and cricket scores of the MDV vs MGL match here. (Scorecard | Day 5 Blog | Cricket News)

Maldives Won By 9 Wickets!
Maldives smashed the Mongolian Cricket team and won the match with 9 wickets in hand. Maldives started well with Azin Rafeeq 24*(16) and Ismail Ali but Ali lost his wicket in the early overs. Ali scored 9(10) but Rafeeq got the full support from Hassan Haziq 21*(14) from the other side and registered a thumping victory over Mongolia in just 6.4 overs.

MLD - 62/1 (6.4)
 

Target Set For Maldives - 61 Runs (20 Overs)
 

Mongolia manages a fighting total
After losing early wickets, once struggling at 19/6 Mongolian Cricket team somehow put up a score of 60 runs on the board. Maldives bowlers bowled with discipline and never gave any easy chance to Mongolia to score runs. Rafeeq finished his spell with figures 4-1-10-3. Now Maldives will try to finish the match as early as possible.

MGL - 60/9 (20)

Mongolia fights back
Davaasuren Jamyansuren and Mungun Altankhuyag have managed to stabilise once shuttering Mongolian batting lineup. Mongolia is close to crossing their last match's total.

MGL - 39/6 (17)

Mongolia Struggling at 19/6 
Azin Rafeeq is having his best day out here in Hangzhou. Mongolian batters are falling like cards. After 10 overs in the game, the score is 19/6. Azin Rafeeq and other bowlers have shown great patience in the bowling.

MGL - 19/6 (10)

Good Start from Maldives
Maldives bowlers have started well and clinched 3 early wickets in the match. Azin Rafeeq is smoking fire with his bowling. His bowling figures are 3-1-4-3. All three Mongolian batters were out on his bowling. Mongolia struggling here, need a good partnership now.

MGL - 6/3 (5)

Maldives have won the toss and have opted to field

Teams:

Maldives (Playing XI): Nazwan Ismail, Fareed Shius(w), Muawiyath Ghanee, Hussain Sadhin(c), Ismail Ali, Mohamed Miuvan, Naseer Naail Ismail, Azin Rafeeq, Hassan Rasheed, Rasheed Rassam, Ryan Tholal

Mongolia (Playing XI): Mungun Altankhuyag, Davaasuren Jamyansuren, Luvsanzundui Erdenebulgan(c), Od Lutbayar, Enkhtuvshin Munkhbat, Batmunkh Batkhuyag, Nyambaatar Naranbaatar, Enkh-erdene Otgonbayar(w), Tur-erdene Sumiya, Enkhbayar Buyantuguldur, Turmunkh Tumursukh

Greetings and welcome for the updates on Mongolia vs Maldives match

Despite its rapid rise as a global sport, cricket is still struggling to get a firm foothold in the majority of Asian countries, including China. That said, the game has so far proven to be a real crowd-pleaser at the ongoing 2023 Asian Games. The women's competition was won by a star-studded Indian team, who defeated another powerhouse, Sri Lanka in the gold medal match.

It's T20I cricket, which is a 20-overs-a-side affair -- shortest of the three globally recognised formats. 14 nations are fighting for the men's Asiad cricket gold medal. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, thanks to their higher global standing (read: ICC ranking) will enter the competition proper, from the knock-out stage.

In the group stage, there are nine teams -- The Maldives, Mongolia and Nepal (Group A); Cambodia, Hong Kong and Japan (Group B); Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (Group C). The three group winners will progress to the knockouts.

Cricket became a part of the Asiad programme in 2010, in the Guangzhou Games, more than a decade after it last featured in a major multi-sport event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. In Guangzhou, Bangladesh defeated Afghanistan to claim the gold medal, while Pakistan got the better of Sri Lanka in the bronze play-off. Four years later, Sri Lanka triumphed against Afghanistan in the Incheon gold medal match, while Bangladesh beat Hong Kong to take home bronze.