Ireland 235 for 5 (Tucker 94*, Delany 56, Shakeel 3-33) beat Oman 139 (Kaleem 50, Mirza 46, Little 3-16) by 96 runs
There was more trouble for Ireland as Kaleem, also a left-arm spinner, struck to remove Curtis Campher in the eighth over. Two balls later, he should have had Tucker on 18, but for a missed stumping by Vinayak Shukla. Deceived in flight, Tucker seemed to have been stumped down leg, but third umpire Ahsan Raza deemed Shukla to have broken the bails with the hand in which he didn’t have the ball. Replays, though, seemed to indicate both gloves were in contact with each other. Had it been given, Ireland would have been 65 for 5.
With their spin options exhausted by 14 overs, Oman turned to their seam options in a bid to restrict Ireland. This is when Delany chose to leave his imprint on the game, muscling Jiten Ramanandi for two sixes off his first two deliveries in an 18-run over. Then he went after Faisal Shah, flat-batting a six off a slower-length ball to raise a 28-ball half-century. That was to be the start of the carnage that saw Ireland muscle 93 off the last five overs.
Jatinder Singh fell for his third low score, while Ashish Odedara, playing his first game, was run out taking a casual stroll. After two ordinary outings, Kaleem showed what he is capable of in a sensational powerplay take-down, reminiscent of his half-century against India at last year’s Asia Cup. When he got to a half-century, off just 28 deliveries, he became the oldest half-centurion in men’s T20 World Cup history. At 97 for 2 in the 11th over, Oman were well on track.
