IND vs HKG, Asia Cup 2022: What happened the last time India met Hong Kong?

It's not every day that India and Hong Kong get to play each other. For the latter, it's the third time they have faced Rohit Sharma and Co. in 14 years. They have fared well in recent times, coming through to the Asia Cup 2022 qualifiers by pipping Kuwait and UAE.

Ahead of the clash at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday (August 31), the likes of Nizakat Khan and Mohammad Ghazanfar will be eager to put up a fight against India. The Men in Blue began their campaign with a win against Pakistan earlier last week.

Both India and Hong Kong's encounters so far have been in the Asia Cup, one in 2008 and the other in 2018, with the Men in Blue winning both contests. While one team will look to iron out some creases in their T20 game, the other will look to stage a massive upset.

In a bit of a flashback, we take a look at what happened when both these teams met each other in 2018.

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IND vs HKG 2018: India won by 26 runs

Batting first, India were buoyed by Shikhar Dhawan's blistering 127 to post a formidable 285/7. With an ODI format followed back then, the Rohit Sharma-led side also saw notable contributions from Dinesh Karthik (33) and Kedar Jadhav (28*).

In reply, Hong Kong put up a solid fight with Nizakat Khan (92) and skipper Anshuman Rath (73) getting the team off to a 174-run stand. However, the middle order failed to consolidate on the platform set by their openers and eventually finished with a score of 259/8.

It was a major scare for India after Khan and Rath's knocks threatened to take the game away from them. Khaleel Ahmed and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up three wickets apiece, while Kuldeep Yadav picked up a couple to dent Hong Kong's chase.

While Khan's knock was studded with 15 fours and a six, Rath chipped in with four hits to the fence and one over it. Post the game, the skipper shared his two cents on the game. He said:

"When we restricted them to just 280. We knew it was a good batting deck but obviously they had 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'."

It was game on, as they came within inches of beating one of the best sides in the world. Only time will tell how they fare in the Asia Cup 2022.