(Cricket news) After narrowly beating Pakistan in the opening game, India dismantled Hong Kong by 40 runs. India finished 1st in their group and qualified for the Super 4s along with Afghanistan. The matches between Bangladesh/Sri Lanka and Pakistan/Hong Hong will decide the other two members of the Super 4s. India made 1 change to their side as Hardik Pandya was rested while Rishabh Pant came in his place. It is pretty clear that Hardik Pandya is India's most important T20 player and it was a good decision by the management to rest him for the game. However this might be the last game of the tournament where he is rested. Hong Kong won the toss and put India into bat first. 

KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma started the innings extremely cautiously. The Indian skipper and his deputy were trying to spend some time on the pitch before going big. Rohit Sharma did get a couple of boundaries and a maximum before being dismissed by Ayush Shukla on 21 off 13. KL Rahul ended up being too defensive and was dismissed 39 ball 36. Rahul did free his arms for a couple of maximums but it was clear that he was struggling for form and rhythm. India will be hoping that he starts firing from the next match which is likely to be against Pakistan. Virat Kohli on the other hand is getting his form back as he scored an unbeaten 59 off 44 balls. He hit 1 four and 3 sixes as he anchored the Indian innings. India's best batter was definitely Suryakumar Yadav who scored 68 off just 26 balls. His innings was the game changer as hit 6 fours and 6 sixes in no time. It was a classic Suryakumar innings as he scored runs all over the ground. India finished at 192/2 but it could've been more had they not been stuck a little in the middle overs.

Chasing 193, Hong Kong batted pretty well in patches. In the end they fell 40 runs short but there were a lot of  positives to take from the performance. Babar Hayat and Kinchit Shah were the best performers. It was by no means a good performance by the Indian bowlers. Avesh Khan once again had a day to forget despite picking up a wicket as he conceded 54 runs in his 4 overs. Arshdeep Singh was also expensive as he finished with figures of 1/44. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja were good with the ball as they got a scalp each. Yuzvendra Chahal was once again economical but wicketless. In absence of Hardik Pandya, India didn't have a 6th bowling option. Virat Kohli stepped up and bowled an over at the death and gave away only 6 runs. Kohli could be asked to bowl a few overs in the future when necessary just like he used to do when MS Dhoni was captain.

Also read: Suryakumar sizzles in India's big win, team enters Super 4