Oman, Ireland register victories on first day of five-nation T20I series
The series serves as a build-up to the teams' participation for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Global Qualifier 2019 to be held in the United Arab Emirates from 18 October to 2 November.
Oman began their campaign with an emphatic seven-wicket win over Hong Kong in the first match. The visitors, who opted to bat first could only put up 96/9 in their 20 overs, thanks to a disciplined bowling and fielding performance from the hosts. The Hong Kong openers started well, scoring 30 in a little over four overs but the loss of Nizakat Khan and Kinchit Shah in the fifth over triggered a massive collapse. As many as four out of the nine wickets that fell were run-out. Oman coupled their superb fielding effort with some tight bowling and did not let the visitors recover. No.8 batsman Haroon Arshad top-scored for Hong Kong with 19*, while Mohammad Nadeem (4-0-22-2) registered the best bowling spell for the hosts.
In reply, Oman got off to a slow start, losing opener Jatinder Singh in the second over. But Khawar Ali and captain Zeeshan Maqsood put up a 70-run stand for the third wicket and took the game away from the visitors. Oman were just two runs away from victory when Khawar Ali was run out by Shahid Wasif on 32 but it was too little, too late from Hong Kong. Maqsood remained unbeaten on 39 to ensure Oman’s easy victory with 25 balls to spare.
Ireland put Netherlands in to bat and they raked a competitive 167/7 on the back of Ben Cooper’s sixth T20I fifty. the 27-year-old first partnered with opener Max O’Dowd after Tobias Visee’s wicket and then with Colin Ackermann to put up two fifty-plus partnerships. While the Irish bowlers were expensive in the beginning, they hit back with wickets in the death overs, allowing Netherlands to score only 10 runs in the last two overs.
Ireland’s chase was swift as they began their innings, scoring 10 runs per over before the fall of Kevin O’Brien’s wicket at the beginning of the fifth on 23. Both Paul Stirling (23 off 19) and Andrew Balbirnie (32 off 20) perished after scoring quickly and the new pair of Gareth Delany and Harry Tector found it difficult to score boundaries initially. Delany fell on 29 in search of quick runs with Ireland needing 41 runs in the final 4.3 overs. However, Tector switched gears soon after taking on Roelof van der Merwe and Brandon Glover. 13 runs came off the 17th over and 19 in the 18th over, further reducing the equation for Ireland. The teenager remained unbeaten on 47 off 26 balls to star in a six-wicket Irish victory with 10 balls remaining.
Hosts Oman will play Ireland, while Nepal will take on Hong Kong on day two of the pentangular series on Sunday, 6 October.