The thrills of twenty 20 cricket blended with the traditional glorious uncertainties at Ahmadi on Monday afternoon at the Unity Oval when a plucky Omani outfit outshone one of the tournament favourites Afghanistan by a relatively massive margin of 64 runs.
Facing a target of 164 the dashers from Afghanistan fumbled, floundered and then folded for 99. They were a shadow of their flamboyant selves as early wickets pegged them back and the pressure and mounting required rate struck them down. Hemin Desai with 3 for 24 and Zeeshan Ahmad with an amazing haul of 4 for 12 were the destroyers.
Earlier Oman were all out for 163 in 19.2 overs posting a challenging score. The par in this tournament with difficult conditions for free flowing batsmanship has been around that figure. Sultan Ahmad top scored with 42 while the duo of Hemin and Zeeshan chipped in with the bat as well with 32 a piece. Noozor Mangal was rewarded with 4 wickets for his nagging accuracy for Afghanistan.
Zeeshan Ali of Oman was declared the man of the match.
Oman 163 all out in 19.2 overs beat Afghanistan 99 all out in 17.4 overs |
