IND vs OMA | Twitter Reacts as India remain unbeaten in league stage after tight win against Oman

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India won the toss and chose to bat first in the last league game of the Asia Cup and were surprised in the first two overs itself as Shubman Gill was dismissed in the second over by a beautiful inswinger by Faisal Shah. While this was a great start by the Oman bowlers, Abhishek Sharma got a few big hits away towards the end as the Men in Blue finished the powerplay on a score of 60/1. Though it seemed like the Men in Blue would continue to dominate after the power play, Jiten Ramadani brought another twist to the innings by dismissing Abhishek Sharma for 38 and being involved in the run-out of Hardik Pandya, who was caught outside his crease at the non-striker’s end. However, the two dismissals did not upset the run-flow as Samson continued to score his runs freely and took the score to 100/3 at the halfway stage. The Men in Blue were once again in the driver’s seat as Axar Patel also started to find some rhythm and formed a partnership of 45 off 23 deliveries until he was dismissed in the 12th over by Aamir Kaleem. The 43-year-old off-spinner did not stop there as he returned in the 14th over to get the wicket of Shivam Dube as well. These two scalps put a bit of a break on the scoring as the CRR dropped under 10 with the score reading 140/5 after 15 overs. Despite the small period of struggle, Tilak Verma and Samson put on another 41 runs for the sixth wicket, with Tilak impressing with some big hits and Samson finally completing his half-century in 40 deliveries. Though Samson was dismissed by Faisal in the 18th over and Tilak was dismissed for 29 in the 19th over by Ramadani, the team already had enough runs on the board at 179/8, with one over to go. Though the last over by Faisal started quietly, Harshit Rana spoiled the tidy over by the left-arm pacer with a six as India ended the first innings on a score of 188/8.

While the Oman openers, Jatinder Singh and Aamir Kaleem, were playing cautiously for the majority of the power play, there were also a few elegant boundaries in the last few overs, which took the score to 44/0 at the end of the first six overs. However, as soon as the partnership started to look threatening, Kuldeep Yadav managed to give the first breakthrough for India as the Oman skipper chopped the ball onto his stumps with the required rate still in double digits. While things were looking to go India’s way, Kaleem, along with Hammad Mirza, kept the chase alive for Oman. As Kaleem brought up his second half-century in T20Is and Mirza started to find the middle of the bat, the equation was down to 49 off the last three overs. Unfortunately, the hopes of an upset started to dwindle as soon as the 93-run stand came to an end in the 18th over, after Harshit Rana got an important wicket of Kaleem, following a couple of boundaries at the start of the over. Mirza was dismissed in the following over by Hardik Pandya on a score of 51. In the end, the Indian bowlers kept their nerves and secured a 21-run win to maintain their unbeaten run in the tournament.

Saviour