India XI ended a disappointing Hong Kong Sixes campaign with a win on Sunday, 1 November, beating Bangladesh XI by nine wickets in the 11th-12th place play-off at Mission Road Ground, Mong Kok. Bangladesh made 116 for five in six overs; India chased 117 for the loss of one wicket in six overs to finish 11th in the 12-team tournament.
The play-off was the final act of a tournament that had gone badly wrong for Krunal Pandya’s side. India lost their Group C opener to Pakistan by four wickets on Friday, with Pakistan chasing 89 in 3.5 overs, and then lost to the United Arab Emirates by six wickets on Saturday morning. A three-run defeat to England in the Bowl semi-final on Saturday — England 124 for two, India 121 for four — dropped India into Sunday’s classification match.
Bangladesh’s innings in the play-off totalled 116 for five, with nine extras, at 19.33 runs per over. India’s reply was measured by sixes standards: 117 for one at 19.50 runs per over, with Shashank Singh retiring hurt after a partnership contribution and Rahul Tripathi among the scorers. The win was sealed with no balls to spare in the frantic six-over format, where every delivery carries outsized weight.
The Hong Kong Sixes is a six-a-side, six-overs-per-innings competition in which only six batters take the field per team — a format that rewards explosive hitting and punishes even a single quiet over. India had shown flashes of that explosiveness: Shashank Singh’s 40 off 11 balls against Pakistan, T. Natarajan’s 38 off 14 against the UAE, and Rahul Tripathi’s unbeaten 56 off 14 balls against England in the Bowl semi-final.
But flashes were not enough. Against Pakistan, Krunal Pandya’s opening over went for 31 runs, including five consecutive sixes. Against the UAE, Khalid Shah smashed an unbeaten 52 off 14 balls, with six sixes, as the UAE chased 95 in 4.2 overs without losing a wicket. Against England, Martin Andersson’s 51 off 13 balls set a target India fell three runs short of, despite Tripathi’s late charge.
The 11th-place finish will sting for a side that arrived with recognisable names and left with three defeats in four completed matches before Sunday’s consolation win. The UAE, by contrast, topped Group C with two wins from two and advanced to the Cup semi-finals, while Pakistan took the Plate route.
For India, the consolation is narrow but real: the batting finally clicked as a unit in the play-off, the chase was completed without panic, and the tournament ended with a win rather than a fourth straight defeat. The broader lesson of the weekend, though, is that sixes cricket forgives nothing — one expensive over, one dropped catch, one quiet over, and a tournament can be gone before it has properly begun.
