The race for the final three spots at next year’s T20 World Cup is down to six sides with Nepal, United Arab Emirates and Oman as they progress to the Super 6 of the Asia/East Asia-Pacific Qualifiers with slight advantage.
Having won all their games in the Asia-EAP Qualifiers group stage, Nepal, Oman and UAE take forward a win into the Super 6 by the virtue of beating the second place finishers in their respective groups.
Qatar, Japan and Samoa are the other three sides in the Super 6. In the Super 6 stage, Nepal, Oman and UAE will play four games each instead of five. The trio will not play the group stage second-best place finishers. Kuwait, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea were eliminated after they finished third in the group stages in respective groups.
The Super 6 stage starts on October 12 with the final three teams to be decided by October 17.
UAE’s spirited show in Group A
In Group A, UAE had an easy outing against Qatar but were made to fight against Malaysia. Led by Muhammad Waseem, UAE didn’t had any hiccups in chasing Qatar’s 118 on matchday 1. Against Malaysia, UAE were on top till the 13th over, reducing the opponent to 84/5.
However, it was Ahmad Faiz (54 not out from 39 balls) and Sharvin Muniandy (41 from 22 balls), who pushed the Malaysians to 161. In reply, Waseem extinguished any Malaysian fightback with a 53-ball 84 to help UAE enter the Super 6 stage unbeaten.
Oman’s easy outing in Group C
Oman, who recently made their debut in the Asia Cup 2025 and put up a great fight against world champions India, had a pretty easy outings against Samoa and Papua New Guinea in Group C.
led by Simranjeet Singh, Oman first defeated Samoa quite easily. Notably, Samoa had legendary Ross Taylor making debut, after having previously played 102 T20Is for New Zealand. In the process, Taylor became the 22nd cricketer to represent two international teams in men’s T20Is.
In the final group game, Oman knocked out fellow 2024 T20 World Cup participants PNG with a comfortable 52-run win.
Nepal, Japan make biggest noise
It was arguably the biggest moment in Japan’s cricket history when they chased down a 178-run target to knock out Kuwait. However, the Japanese failed to replicate the same against a spirited Nepal who had also defeated Kuwait to take the top spot in Group C.
Against Nepal, Japan rode on Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming’s 60 (46), including a 16 runs in three balls off Sandeep Lamichhane, to post 131/8 in 20 overs. In reply, Nepal were in a spot of bother with half of their side back in the hut with just 90 runs on the board. But it was Gulshan Jha (28 not out from 20 balls) and Dipendra Singh Airee (14 not out), who took Nepal home with two overs to spare.