Oman beat Canada by 9 wickets; Bhurtel’s maiden T20I century helps Nepal win against Philippines

MUSCAT:  Unbeaten half-centuries by Kashyap Prajapati and skipper Zeeshan Maqsood powered hosts Oman to a nine-wicket win over Canada in the Group A match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier A, supported by Dream 11, at the Oman Academy ground in Al Amerat on Saturday.

In the second game of the morning session, Nepal strolled to a 136-run win over Philippines to top the group with four points after their back-to-back victories. Canada and Oman have two points each now.

Oman’s win helped them bounce back to keep their hopes alive for a spot in the semi-finals. The top-two teams in each group will advance to the knockout round. Chasing a target of 156 to win, hosts lost opening batter Jatinder Singh in the fifth over with the total at 30.

Maqsood joined Prajapati in the middle and the pair exhibited some fine strokes all around the park. The duo took the attack to the bowlers to share a 129-run unbroken partnership to secure a comfortable win with 12 balls to spare. Prajapati was unbeaten for 74 off 56 balls.

His knock was studded with five boundaries and four sixes. Maqsood displayed more attacking intent to race to his 76 off just 44 balls, with six boundaries and five maximums. Jatinderpal Matharu’s second over cost him 19 runs as Maqsood hammered three fours and a six.

Along with Prajapati, the skipper continued the attack as they smashed the bowling attack for a total of 47 runs in just three overs to wrap up the win. Rayyan Pathan and Matharu went for plenty in their spell as they gave away 24 and 23 runs respectively in their two-over spells.

Earlier, Ravinderpal Singh anchored Canada’s innings with a partnership with Saad Zafar to guide the team to 83 before Maqsood broke the stand.

Canadian opening pair Rayyan Pathan and Matthew Spoors – got off to a bright start. Pathan was in fine form as he found the early boundaries in the Power play but was run out in the fifth over for 26 that included four boundaries.

Matthew Spoors, who made century on his T20I debut on Friday, followed his partner in the pavilion soon as Kaleemullah came up with a splendid wicket-maiden sixth over. Canadian skipper Navneet Dhaliwal departed in the next over to leave the side at 43-3. Singh and Zafar revived the innings with a 42-run stand.

Oman bowlers restricted their opponents to a 62-3 at the halfway mark. Hamza Tariq and Singh gradually accelerated the run-rate as they took 12 off Syed Aamir Kaleem’s 14th over. Singh finally fell in the 17th over caught brilliantly by Prajapati off Bilal Khan.

Dilllon Heylinger struck some hits in the death overs, blasting a six and two successive boundaries in the 18th over to stay unbeaten on 21 off ten balls. Tariq ended Canada’s innings with a six to help the team’s total of 155 for six.

Navneet Dhaliwal, Captain Canada said, “Catches win matches is an age-old saying. We dropped some big catches, of their opener [Kashyap Prajapati]. If we had taken those chances, the match could have gone differently. We only have ourselves to blame. I think Oman bowled really well, so credit goes to them. But we were quite happy with the total we put up.”

Ahead of their must-win match against Nepal on Monday, Dhaliwal said: “We know it is a big game. The good thing is we are not out of the tournament yet so we will try our best.”

Zeeshan Maqsood, Captain Oman said: “We really needed this win, and it was great to achieve it. After Jatinder got out, coach [Duleep Mendis] supported my decision to come out at one down.

“The way KP (Kashyap) played was crucial. We were getting runs on both the ends so that put pressure on Canada. I was also happy that we could restrict Canada to 155. We had a complete performance and the way we won underlines it.”

Bhurtel ton in Nepal’s victory

Kushal Bhurtel slammed an unbeaten 61-ball century as Nepal defeated the Philippines by 136 runs in the second game at Oman Academy 2 ground on Saturday. Coming out to bat after the Philippines won the toss, Nepal scored 218/3 in their 20 overs. Opener Aasif Sheikh was sent back for a duck in the second over and soon after, Kushal Malla followed.

A 171-run fourth-wicket stand between Bhurtel and experienced Dipendra Singh Airee (83 off 47) meant that Philippines went into the break, looking at a target even larger than the 216 that Canada had posed on Friday.

Dipendra’s inning included six fours and four sixes while Bhurtel’s inning was studded with 13 boundaries and one maximum. Philippines were then restricted to only 82/8 with contributions from Daniel Smith, Jordan Alegra and captain Jonathan Hull.

After defending a low score against Oman on Friday, Nepal were impressive with the ball once again. Sandeep Lamichhane led from the front, with figures of 3/9. This is the third-highest margin of victory in T20 Internationals for Nepal.

Nepalese skipper Sandeep Lamichhane praised the partnership of Kushal and Dipendra and said: “They are class players and they proved that. We wanted to bowl out Philippines, but we couldn’t. We will take lessons from this game forward and continue with our good form ahead.”

Jonathan Hull, Captain Philippines said, “We will try to put all our efforts in the last game against Oman. We hope to do better.”

After a rest day on Sunday, Nepal will face Canada whilst Philippines take on Oman on Monday.

All twenty matches of the eight-team tournament will be streamed live on FanCode in the Indian sub-continent and on ICC.tv across the rest of the world.