Scotland’s victory over Oman by seven wickets in Antigua on Sunday increased their hopes of making it to the second round of the T20 Cricket World Cup and propelled them to the top of Group B.With almost seven overs remaining, Scotland defeated Oman’s score of 150-7 with the help of Brandon McMullen’s undefeated 61 off just 31 balls. The Scots concluded with 153-3 off 13.1 overs.McMullen, who finished with four of his nine boundaries in a brilliant batting showing that included two sixes, declared himself “very chuffed to get the win for the team.”
“The priority was to win and get the points but at drinks we said we should get this done.”
Scotland and McMullen play their final group match against Australia, but they are full of confidence following a strong tournament debut.
“We constantly aim to improve, so we are confident going into the Australia match. That is the strategy moving ahead,” McMullen declared.The run chase by Scotland had started off nicely, with Michael Jones scoring 16 and George Munsey scoring 41 before being caught by Shakeel Ahmed off Mehran Khan.
After that, McMullen grabbed control of the match, ending behind Matthew Cross, who was 15 runs from an eight-ball knock that featured two enormous sixes.
Aqib Ilyas, the captain of Oman, won the toss and chose to bat at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound. He bemoaned his team’s inability to reach a more competitive score and wasted opportunities in the Scotland innings.
“175 could have been a good score, but we had too many dot balls on a flat track,” remarked Aqib. We have to get better at batting. Though 150 was on par, we missed far too many opportunities.If you capture a catch, the opposing team is put under pressure. In the game of cricket, you can be on top at times and down at others.
Pratik Athavale opened the innings with a score of 54 off 40 balls, and Aqib Ilyas added 16 after Naseem Khushi added 10. It seemed that Aqib’s choice to bat first had paid off.
However, after 8.5 overs, the Omanis were down 71-4 when Zeeshan Maqsood was dismissed for three runs cheaply and Khalid Kail was run out ten runs later.
With the help of Mehran Khan, who contributed 13, Ayaan Khan steadied the ship with an undefeated 41 off 39 deliveries.
The only Scottish bowler with multiple wickets was Safyaan Sharif, but the seamer’s brace came for a hefty 40 runs.While spinner Mark Watt’s four overs yielded 25 runs and one wicket, Brad Wheal bowled an efficient spell of 1-19 off four overs.
