Oman finishes without a win in Super Six as West Indies makes light work of the tournament dark horses
Playing for pride after being knocked out from the road to qualify for the 2023 ICC World Cup, West Indies beat Oman by seven wickets. Brandon King was the star of West Indies with his knock of 100 runs off 104 balls cruising the Test nation to victory.
Coming out to chase 222, West Indies suffered a jolt in the second over when Kaleemullah knocked over the stumps of Johnson Charles. Brandon King needed a partner to navigate the new ball and got one in the form of Keacy Carty.
Carty and King stitched a partnership of 90 deliveries with the former striking only three boundaries in his knock of 29 off 49 balls. Noticing a misfield, Carty tried to sneak in a single but was marginally short on his retreat as the direct throw cost him his wicket.
West Indies were 87-2 by the end of 17 overs and King slowly and steadily accelerated things from the other end. He showed no mercy on both the pacers and spinners as he struck 15 boundaries to score a second century in his ODI career.
Taken aback by the pace and bounce, King tried to cut a ball on the backfoot but could only edge it towards the keeper. Shai Hope helped King rotate the strike and continued doing so when Nicholas Pooran entered the picture. Pooran played a handy cameo towards the end by hitting two fours and one six on his way to score 19 off 14 balls.
Barely anything to praise the Oman bowlers as they had too little to defend against a batting line-up that of West Indies.
Romario Shepherd claimed three wickets in the match
Oman failed to make the most of the batting surface as Jatinder Singh and Aqib Ilyas put up only 8 and 1 run respectively on the board. There was no stopping the collapse as wickets fell one after another. Kashyap Prajapati made 31 before being run out by Roston Chase. The fate was no different for Mohammed Nadeem who scored 20 runs.
Ayaan Khan notched 30 runs but gobbled the ball towards the hands of Kevin Sinclair. From 26-1, Oman crumbled to 116-6 inside the first 32 overs. The saving grace came in the form of an 85-run partnership between Shoaib Khan and Suraj Kumar. Both of them completed their half-centuries in the course of the game before their partnership came to an end via a run-out.
Romario Shepherd and Kyle Mayers picked up wickets in the last three overs but failed to get Oman all out. Suraj Kumar stayed not out till the end after scoring 53 runs which included five boundaries and one six. Shepherd struck thrice while Mayers took two wickets. Akeal Hosein and Roston Chase kept things quiet as they bowled their quota of 10 overs by keeping their economy under the rate of 5 and 4 respectively.
West Indies have a game against Sri Lanka left, with the former already booking their tickets to India later this year. Following the match in Super Six, they will tour India in what will turn out to be a warm-up series for the latter.
This was Oman’s last match in the tournament as they will head back with pride having knocked out Ireland in the group stage. No one expected the Middle Eastern nation to progress to the Super Six stages of the tournament. However, Oman pulled off an upset by beating Ireland giving a reality check to the European nation.