Despite Oman giving India a scare, they slipped to a 21-run loss in an Asia Cup game in Abu Dhabi on Friday. Hammad Mirza (51) and Aamir Kaleem (64) were the cornerstones of Oman’s fightback as they ended up on 167 in a chase of 189. With this victory, India have won all their three games in the group phase of the tournament.
It took a brilliant catch by Hardik Pandya in the 18th over at fine leg to settle the nerves in the Indian camp. He moved to his right and showed very good balance to stay inside the rope and pouch the catch. The 43-year-old Kaleem, the man dismissed, received warm hugs in the dugout.
Oman’s batters certainly put on a spirited performance. Jatinder Singh (32), the skipper, took on India’s bowlers with some crunchy strokes. The highlights of his innings were the punch off Hardik and the reverse-sweep that he executed against Axar Patel. Suryakumar Yadav soon turned to his trump card Kuldeep Yadav. And he didn’t disappoint his skipper, dislodging Jatinder with a quicker delivery.
With Suryakumar opting to give Abhishek Sharma, Shivam Dube and Tilak Varma a few overs, Kaleem and Mirza landed a few meaty blows. Kaleem even charged down the track to thump Tilak for a six. He completed his fifty, cracking Dube for a six and a four in the 15th over. Hammad proceeded to tonk Kuldeep’s bowling into the stands twice in the 16th over.
The duo of Kaleem and Mirza also combined to collect four boundaries off Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana. At that stage, an upset seemed a distinct possibility but it wasn’t to be as they lost both Kaleem and Mirza in the 18th and 19th over respectively. In the final over of the game, Arshdeep became the first Indian to complete 100 T20I wickets as he removed Vinayak Shukla.
Earlier, on a slow pitch, India’s total was built on useful contributions from Sanju Samson (56), Tilak (29) and Abhishek (38). In fact, the theme of India’s effort was based on experimentation in the batting order. Samson took the No. 3 slot, while Hardik, Axar and Dube took the next three positions respectively. Tilak batted as low as No. 8, and Suryakumar was slated to come in at the No.11 position.
Abhishek was the one who pressed the accelerator pedal at the top of the order, composing a breezy 15-ball 38. His eye-catching stroke-play consisted of slog-sweeps, lofts and heaves across the line. One of the salient features of his batting was even when his bottom hand came off the bat handle, the ball went scurrying away via the point region.
For More Stories From The Asia Cup Follow RevSportz
Ultimately, he fell to Jiten Ramanandi, but by then, India had progressed to 72 for 2 in just 7.1 overs. Hardik then was run-out at the bowler’s end. Axar, who replaced Hardik at the crease, essayed a flurry of shots while facing the spinners. He was particularly severe on Shakeel Ahmed, clubbing him for a couple of boundaries in a single over.
Axar and Dube fell in quick succession to Kaleem’s left-arm spin. At that juncture, Tilak and Samson stitched an alliance of 41 to put India in pole position. In the 18th over, Samson was removed by Shah Faisal. Although Samson grappled a touch with the two-nature pace of the wicket, he hung around to anchor the innings. Harshit provided the finishing touches to the innings with a six off the final ball.
For Oman, Faisal was the best bowler, returning excellent figures of 2 for 23. The left-arm pace bowler would fondly remember the inswinger to Shubman Gill that castled him.
India will next play against arch-rivals Pakistan, an eagerly awaited match against the backdrop of the handshake-gate.
Brief scores: India 188/8 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 56, Abhishek Sharma 38; Shah Faisal 2-23) beat Oman 167/4 in 20 overs (Aamir Kaleem 64, Hammad Mirza 51; Kuldeep Yadav 1-23) by 21 runs.
Also Read: Asia Cup: Jiten Ramanandi, Hardik Pandya complete Gujarat reunion after a decade