Oman are the only debutants at this year’s T20 World Cup and if recent past is anything to go by they are likely to make sure they will leave their own mark on the event given their tendency and openness of ‘Mankad’ dismissals of their opponents.
Form
Oman surprised everyone in the Associate qualifier for this tournament when they finished fifth to make it into the event. Given that they were only given Associate status in 2014 it is no mean effort that they are here punching heavily above their weight.
Controversy has followed them around in recent times with them dismissing Hong Kong’s Mark Chapman via the Mankad dismissal in the Asia Cup qualifiers and rumours were they did the same in a warm up match for this event so there is the potential for their matches to be spicy.
Key men
Sultan Ahmed is the captain of this side and I suspect that if they create some more controversy for themselves then he is going to be an important player for them in this tournament. He is important in his own right and provides a bit of assurance with the bat.
Munis Ansari does a feasible impression of Lasith Malinga albeit without the pace nor the accuracy but he can be hard to get away with that flat, round arm almost slingy style that we’ve enjoyed from the Sri Lankan for so long. If UAE are going to contain sides in this tournament he will be a big player in that challenge.
Fixtures
Wed Mar 9 – Group A: Ireland vs Oman (Dharamsala)
Fri Mar 11 – Group A: Oman vs Netherlands (Dharamsala)
Sun Mar 13 – Group A: Bangladesh vs Oman (Dharamsala)
Stats
Overall T20I record: P10 W3 L7
Last 10 results (most recent last): LWLWLLLWLL
Record vs group opponents:
Vs Bangladesh: Never met
Vs Ireland: Never met
Vs Netherlands: Never met
Record batting first: P6 W2 L4
Record batting second: P4 W1 L3
Odds
Tournament odds: 5000/1 (General)
Group A odds: 50/1 (General)
Team bets
In the Associate qualifier for this tournament Derek Pringle, assigned the role of technical consultant, compared Zeeshan Maqsood to Chris Gayle in the way he hits the ball and the aggression he shows and like the West Indian star, Maqsood uses that style to his advantage.
Maqsood averages 25.66 in the international T20 game and he arrives here in excellent form. He made 58 in a warm up match against Scotland which followed runs of 52 and 46 against Afghanistan and UAE in Asia Cup qualifying so he’s hitting the ball as well as anyone right now and even at 9/4 he looks an obvious pick for the Top Oman Tournament Batsman.
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