Al Amerat: The ICC Men’s World T20 kicked-off its group stage on Sunday as hosts Oman registered a clinical 10wicket victory over Papua New Guinea in Group B at the Al Amerat Cricket Stadium.
A clinical bowling performance, lead by Bilal Khan(2/16) and skipper Zeeshan Maqsood(4/20) helped Oman restrict Papua New Guinea to 129/9 in 20 overs. Assad Vala(56), the skipper was top scorer for PNG on a day when his side’s entire batting line collapsed like a pack of cards. Charles Amini(37) was only man to gave support to his captain with the duo stitching together a 83 run stand helping their side to reach a respectable total.
In reply, Oman ran through their way to 131/0 in 13.4 overs as Aqib Llyass(50*) and Jatinder Singh(73*) smashed everything out of the park to secure a victory at their home.
Later at the same venue, Scotland edged past Bangladesh in the other game of group B by 6 runs in a nail biter. Chasing mere 141, Bangladesh lost a couple of early wickets inside the powerplay overs. However, handy contributions from veterans Shakib – Al – Hasan(20), Mahmudullah(23) and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim(38) kept the side in hunt. Arif Hossain(18) and Mahedi Hasan(13) hammered a few lusty blows to close the gap but it wasn’t enough as they were left to score 25 off the penultimate over which was too much to deal with.
Scotland bowled superbly throughout the game tightening things up with Chris Greaves(2/19) and Bradley Wheal(3/24) topping the charts helping their side to restrict Bangladesh to 134/7.
Earlier, Scotland too had a batting collapse as they ended on 140/9 in 20 overs. Chris Greaves who had later bowled a stellar spell was handy with bat as well topping the charts for the Scottish batters with a 28 ball 45. Scotland kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Bangladeshi spinners Mahedi Hasan(3/19) and Shakib – Al – Hasan (2/17) wrapping them up for home cheaply.
Geroge Munsey(29) and Mark Watt(22) added handy runs as only four batsmen managed to get to double digits with veteran skipper Kyle Coetzer going home for a duck. Bangladeshi bowlers bowled well with much accuracy as they hoped for an easy win however, they were unable to do so.
