UAE end Oman’s Asia Cup hopes
MUSCAT: Oman fumbled when it mattered most losing their crucial and final Asia Cup qualifying stage match by a massive margin of 71-runs to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Dhaka on Monday.
Chasing a target of 172 for six in 20 overs, which they needed to achieve in 13.5 overs to book their berth, Oman wilted under pressure and were restricted to 101 for eight in 20 overs.
The result ended the Sultanate squad’s hope of reaching the main draw of the continental championship while their arch-rivals, who won all three of their outings, earned the right to challenge the Asia’s big boys India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
According to information received from the Bangladeshi capital, Oman captain Sultan Ahmed won the toss and elected to field first.
Though the UAE made a disastrous start, losing opener Rohan Mustafa (5) early, they recovered well through Mohammed Kaleem (4) and Mohammed Shahzad (34) who put on 86 runs in 65 balls.
Later, Mohammed Usman came up with a gem of an innings scoring an unbeaten 46 off 22 balls to help his team post a challenging total.
Slow left-arm bowler Aamir Kaleem was the standout performer for Oman claiming four wickets for 36 runs in his quota of four overs.
In reply, Oman made an equally disastrous start losing three wickets in just 2.1 overs but unlike their rivals failed to recover from that early shock. Later they slumped further losing two more wickets at the same total of 38.
Opener Zeeshan Maqsood waged a lone battle scoring 46 from 42 balls but his effort went in vain.