Oman end tri-series with dominant win over PNG

DUBAI: Oman ended their 4-game tri-series against Scotland and Papua New Guinea with a

comfortable 85-run victory over the latter, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday night.

Batting first after winning the toss, Oman lost Kashyap Prajapati early, but a 124-run partnership between the in-form Jatinder Singh and skipper Zeeshan Maqsood placed them in total command. Jatinder took centre stage and led the scoring for his side with a magnificent 77-ball 79. Zeeshan played the supporting role while making 52 runs himself.

A late-middle order wobble followed, but Ayaan Khan ensured that the platform set earlier was taken full advantage of. He cleared the boundary on 4 occasions on his way to an unbeaten, run-a-ball 62 and with some late help from Kaleemullah, powered Oman to an imperious first-innings score of 277-8.

Norman Vanua was the pick of the PNG bowling unit and finished with figures of 3-50 in 8 overs.

In response, PNG fell well short. Charles Amini held his own for the duration of a valiant 60-run knock while Norman Vanua and Tony Ura chipped in with scores of 27 and 25 respectively. Ultimately however, the damage done in the first innings proved too much to repair in the second and PNG were bowled out for 192 with 5.3 overs to spare.

For Oman, Bilal Khan continued his stunning run of form with another 5-wicket haul – his third in the space of just 9 games. He finished the 4-game tri-series with a jaw-dropping tally of 13 wickets. Khawar Ali was the other one with more than 1 scalp to his name in this match.

While collecting his Player of the Match award, Bilal said, “I’m always happy to bowl in Dubai. Whether it is with the old or new ball, in the middle overs or at the death, I always bowl with heart. I enjoy it and manage to pick up some wickets too.”

Referencing Jatinder and Bilal’s current form and his takeaways from the tri-series as a whole, Zeeshan

Maqsood offered, “Jatinder is a top order batsman and when he scores, the job for the middle and lower order becomes easier. Similar case with Bilal as well. When he gets breakthroughs early on, the rest of the innings gets a little easier.

“In the tour, the pace bowlers have contributed a lot. Jatinder scored a lot of runs – a 100 and 2 fifties. Even in the game yesterday against Scotland, we performed brilliantly and never gave up until the end. There are just a few niggles that we need to sort out but many positives to take forward”.

Oman lead the ICC Men’s CWC League 2 table by 16 points, having played 16 games more than second-placed Scotland.

BRIEF SCORES: Oman 277-8 in 50 overs (Jatinder Singh 79 (77b, 7×4, 2×6), Ayaan Khan 62 (62b, 2×4, 4×6), Zeeshan Maqsood 52 (108b, 3×4); Norman Vanua 3-50) beat Papua New Guinea 192 all out in 44.3 overs (Charles Amini 60 (92b, 3×4); Bilal Khan 5-54) by 85 runs.