England celebrate after their comfortable win over Hong Kong

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

England all-rounder Moeen Ali smashed an entertaining 71 and opener Alex Hales hammered 64 to demolish Hong Kong by 163 runs in Abu Dhabi.

England captain Eoin Morgan would have been pleased with his decision to bat first as a majority of the batsmen made solid contributions.

Jason Roy, Joe Root and Jos Buttler all got starts, but were unable to convert them into bigger scores as they were dismissed for 42, 39 and 38 respectively.

However, Hales and Ali faced no such problems as Hales set the foundations with his 64 off 56 balls, which included eight boundaries and three sixes, while Ali came in towards the latter part of the innings and blasted 71 off 36 deliveries, which included six boundaries and five sixes.

Thanks to a fairly all-round effort, which was spearheaded by Ali and Hales, England finished on 342/8 off their 50 overs.

Tanwir Afzal, Haseeb Amjad and Nadeem Ahmed picked up two wickets apiece, while Aizaz Khan and Anshuman Rath chipped in with one wicket each.

Chasing a mammoth total of 343 to win, Hong Kong struggled from the get-go and soon found themselves in a spot of bother at 59/3.

However, Babar Hayat and Chris Carter steered the innings back in the right direction with an 81-run partnership, during which Babar brought up his half-century, before he was clean bowled by Chris Woakes for a superb 78, which came off 81 balls and included eight boundaries.

Carter was dismissed shortly after as he was caught by Woakes off the bowling of Adil Rashid following a solid knock of 36, which came off 49 balls and included five boundaries.

After Carter’s innings had come to an end, Hong Kong absolutely collapsed as they went from 141/5 to being skittled out for 173.

David Willey inflicted the most damage with four wickets, while Rashid and Reece Topley snapped up two wickets apiece and Woakes and Root claimed one.