MUSCAT – Oman booked their ticket to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 with a convincing 10-wicket victory over Bahrain in the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asian Qualifier Final in Kirtipur, Nepal on Friday. He put in a fantastic performance to earn his spot in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. This will be Oman’s third appearance in the continental T20 showcase, having previously participated in 2016 and 2021.
Oman on Friday qualified for the World Cup from Asia, along with hosts Nepal. In the other semi-final, Nepal defeated UAE by eight wickets.
The 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will feature 20 teams and will be co-hosted by the United States and West Indies. For the next tournament, the 20 teams will be divided into four groups of five teams each, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super Eight stage.
On Friday, Duleep Mendis’ team outplayed their opponents with the spin trio of Aqib Ilyas (4/10), Shakeel Ahmed (2/24) and captain Zeeshan Maqsood (1/17), outperforming the Bahrain batting line-up. confused. and limit them to just 106/9.
Oman’s chase was a walk in the park, with openers Kashyap Prajapati and Pratik Atavale clinching victory in just 14.2 overs.
Both batsmen scored more than half-centuries and left the rival bowlers in hot pursuit. Prajapati remained unbeaten with 57 off 44 (including 6 boundaries and 2 maximums), while Athavare brilliantly completed the half-century milestone with two consecutive fours and a six to the rope. He achieved results worthy of 50 films, including hits.
This victory was mainly due to the Omani bowlers, who took advantage of their familiarity with the playing conditions as they were playing their third consecutive match at the same venue and their fourth match at the same venue. did. In contrast, it was Bahrain’s first match at the TU Ground in Kirtipur.
Oman reached the semi-finals with a hat-trick of wins in Group A, defeating Malaysia, Singapore and Nepal to emerge top of the group. Meanwhile, Bahrain finished second in Group B, narrowly beating Hong Kong with an excellent Net Run Rate (NRR) to advance to the semi-finals.
Bahrain captain Umer Toure chose to bat first, but was the first to be dismissed in the second over, and Fayyaz Butt, who replaced Kareemullah in the XI, was caught by Asabare. A first-wicket partnership between Sarfaraz Ali and Imran Ali pushed Bahrain to 45 before Sarfraz was dismissed by Shakeel for 23. Maqsood then sent Sohail Ahmed back to the pavilion and Bahrain were left struggling at 58/3 until Ilyas’ magic turned the game around. .
Ilyas dismissed the well-established Imran Ali as the first of his four victims before beating Haider Butt with a clean bowl to leave Bahrain on 69/5 in 13 overs. Ilyas completed a mesmerizing spell with back-to-back wickets of Junaid Aziz and Satya Veerapatiran and returned with figures of 4-1-10-4, tottering away from Bahrain at 76/7.
Amer bin Nisar’s unbeaten 26 runs took Bahrain past the 100-run mark, but Bahrain could only manage 106 runs as Shakeel and Bilal Khan cleaned up the rest.
Oman will face hosts Nepal again in Sunday’s final, which will be a rematch of Thursday’s Group A final, which Oman won by just five points.
In the other semi-final, played at the Mulpani ground, UAE, who selected their batsmen, were restricted to 134/9. Vriitya Aravind top-scored with 64, but Kushal Malla (3/11) and Sandeep Lamichhane (2/14) made the decisive breakthrough. Nepal succeeded in chasing down the target on the back of Aasif Sheikh’s unbeaten half-century (64 matches) and skipper Rohit Paudel’s unbeaten record of 34 matches.
Quick score:
Bahrain 106/9 (Imran Ali 30, Sarfaraz Ali 23, Amer bin Nisar 26, Aqib Ilyas 4/10, Shakeel Ahmed 2/24) Oman 109/0 lost in 14.2 overs (Kashyap Prajapati 57) *, Pratik Atavale 50*).
UAE 134/9 (Britiya Aravind 64, Muhammed Waseem 26, Kushal Malla 3/11, Sandeep Lamichhane 2/14) in 17.1 overs, Nepal 135/2 (Aasif Sheikh 64*, Rohit Paudel 34) *, lost to Gulshan Jha 22).