On Thursday, Australia began their T20 World Cup campaign by defeating Oman by 39 runs at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. Marcus Stoinis scored a rapid half-century and took three wickets.
Stoinis helped Australia overcome a top-order collapse and amass 164/5 in the company of David Warner (56) with a devastating unbroken 67-run knock off 36 balls.He then had figures of 3-0-19-3 for the champions of 2021; thereby giving them two points only.
But they could not match the opposition’s power as they finished on 125/9 from the allocated overs.
Oman was pinned back after Nathan Ellis (2/28) and Mitchell Starc (2/20) each scored one run in the first three overs.
In Oman’s innings third delivery, Pratik Athavale (0), got struck on his pads by Starc with an inswinger that was very hostile. Nevertheless when their fervent appeal to the field umpire went unanswered, Australia had to use one more DRS review.
Elis bowled Kashyap Prajapati (7) leg before wicket for Oman’s second wicket while trying for an unsuccessful review.
Stoinis delivered a body blow that took out Oman captain Aqib Ilyas (18), who was trying to go for a counterattack on the last ball of the powerplay. Matthew Wade who kept well throughout held onto Ilyas.
To ensure Australian dominance in this contest, it was Stoinis again who caught Zeeshan Maqsood (1) behind off his own bowling in the ninth over.
Ayaan Khan delayed what seemed inevitable with a brilliant innings of 30-ball 36 comprising two fours and as many sixes while he added up a seventh-wicket partnership worth 37 runs.
After being asked to bat first, Australia managed to score 164/5 in 20 overs. The collapse of the Australian top order was halted by Stoinis’ knock after opener Travis Head (12) and captain Mitchell Marsh (14) could not make it count.
The experienced all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was caught golden duck off Mehran after Ilyas took a terrific one-handed catch that went parallel to the ground beside his poor run with the bat.
Australia was at some stage reduced to 50/3 and needed a comeback. Warner made a partnership of 102 for the fourth wicket with Stoinis from just 64 balls.
Warner’s careful effort included six fours and one six, saw him surpass former Aussie captain Aaron Finch as the nation’s highest run-getter (3,120) in this format too.
By doing so, left-handed Warner achieved this feat in his 104th match for Australia.
Of two, Stoinis was the more aggressive as he hit two fours and six sixes in his unbeaten innings of 67 from just 36 balls.
Mehran Khan picked up two wickets for Oman while Kaleemullah and Bilal Khan each took one. Ilyas had an impressive period of four overs without conceding any runs for which he followed closely with figures of 4-0-28-0 by Shakeel Ahmed (4-0-28-0).
