Debutants Oman dished out a resolute batting effort to stun Ireland by two wickets and register a nerve-wrecking win over experienced Ireland in their Group A qualifying match of the ICC World Twenty20, here on Wednesday.
Chasing a competitive 155 for win, Oman were off to a blazing start with their openers — Zeeshan Maqsood (38 off 33) and Khawar Ali (34 off 26) garnering 69 off 8.2 overs. But then came Kevin O’Brien (2/25) who dismissed both the dangerous looking openers in his consecutive overs to bring Ireland back into the match.
But towards the end, Aamer Ali (32 off 16, 5x4s,1x6) used his long handle to great effect to keep Oman in the hunt till the very last over. Needing 14 off the last over, Oman rode on luck and some bad fielding and bowling from Max Sorenson to overwhelm the target with one ball to spare.
Brief scores
Ireland: 154/5 (Gary Wilson 38; Munis Ansari 3/37) lost to Oman: 156/8 (Zeeshan Maqsood 38; Andy McBrine 2/15) by two wickets.