ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda: England thrashed Oman by eight wickets as the reigning champions revived their T20 World Cup campaign with a record-breaking success in Antigua on Thursday.
Needing a heavy win to bolster their net run-rate (NRR) as they attempt to overhaul Scotland in the race to qualify for the second-round Super Eights, England dismissed Oman for just 47.
England then made 50-2 in a mere 3.1 overs, captain Jos Buttler 24 not out and Jonny Bairstow, who hit the winning boundary, unbeaten on eight.
This overwhelming Group B victory meant England recorded the largest win in T20 World Cup history in terms of balls remaining.
Oman had no answer to England’s combination of spin and pace, leg-break bowler Adil Rashid taking 4-11 from his four overs, while express quicks Jofra Archer and Mark Wood both had figures of 3-12 in an innings that ended with nearly seven overs to spare.
Number seven Shoaib Khan (11) was the only Oman batsman to reach double figures after Buttler won the toss.
Significantly, England’s NRR climbed to 3.081, better than Scotland’s 2.16. England, however, stayed third on three points, behind Scotland’s five.
Already-eliminated Oman, who ended the tournament having lost all four of the games, just scraped past the record lowest completed total of 39 at any T20 World Cup, posted by fellow-non Test nation Uganda against co-hosts West Indies in Guyana last week.
Archer did the early damage with 2-12 in nine balls.
Oman then lost two wickets in Wood’s first over as they slumped to 25-4 in six overs.
The very next delivery wicketkeeper Buttler luckily removed the bails at the second attempt to stump Khalid Kail off Rashid’s first ball Thursday as wickets continued to tumble.
Phil Salt struck the first two balls of England’s chase for six, only to be bowled off the third by Bilal Khan, but his side were on their way.
England, beaten by Australia after their group game with Scotland was abandoned due to rain, play Namibia on Saturday.
Australia and Scotland, however, will meet on Sunday after England have completed their group games.
England thrash Oman to revive T20 World Cup campaign
https://arab.news/n2vx2
England thrash Oman to revive T20 World Cup campaign
- This overwhelming Group B victory meant England recorded the largest win in T20 World Cup history in terms of balls remaining
- Oman had no answer to England's attack, leg-spinner Adil Rashid taking 4-11, while Jofra Archer and Mark Wood had 3-12 figures
Samson and Bumrah star as India beat NZ to retain T20 World Cup title
- India become first team to win T20 World Cup three times
- New Zealand fall short of maiden World Cup
AHMEDABAD: India became the first team to retain the men’s Twenty20 World Cup title after handing out a 96-run demolition of New Zealand in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
India also became the first team to lift the title three times, while New Zealand’s wait for a maiden white-ball World Cup continues.
The victory will taste particularly sweet for India since it came at a venue where they were beaten by Australia in the final of the 50-overs World Cup three years ago.
Put in to bat, India capitalized on a 98-run opening stand between Sanju Samson (89) and Abhishek Sharma (52) to rack up 255-5.
Number three Ishan Kishan smashed 54 but James Neesham bowled a three-wicket over to apply the brakes on India’s scoring rate toward the end of the innings.
Chasing such a daunting target, New Zealand could not recover from a top-order collapse and were all out for 159 in 19 overs despite defiant knocks by Tim Seifert (52) and Mitchell Santner (43).
“This feels extremely special because I’ve played one final in my home venue but couldn’t win that one, but today I won,” said India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, whose 4-15 fetched him player of the match award.
“I knew the wicket was a flat one so had to use all my experience.”
Samson, who smashed his third successive 80-plus knock, was adjudged player of the tournament.
Earlier, wary of having to bowl with a hard-to-grip, dew-soaked ball later in the evening, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner elected to field.
New Zealand used four different bowlers in the first four overs but could not stop India from milking 92 without losing a wicket after the six powerplay overs.
BATTING CARNAGE
Rachin Ravindra dismissed Abhishek with his first ball to bring relief to the New Zealand camp, ending the opener’s 21-ball knock that included three sixes.
With Samson continuing in the same vein and Kishan joining him in a batting carnage, there was hardly any respite for New Zealand.
Both found boundaries with remarkable regularity as India reached the 200-mark in the 15th over.
Samson, who smacked Ravindra for three sixes in a row, was finally caught in the deep off James Neesham, who also removed Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in a three-wicket over.
India could not maintain the tempo after the departures of their set batters and yet comfortably breached the 250-mark.
New Zealand’s top order wilted early in their chase and they could never really recover after being reduced to 47-3 inside five overs. Finn Allen, who smashed a 33-ball hundred in the semifinal against South Africa, got a reprieve when Shivam Dube dropped him in the first over from Arshdeep Singh. Allen could not capitalize on it though, and holed out against spinner Axar Patel in the third over. Bumrah dismissed Ravindra with his first delivery and Axar got rid of Glenn Phillips to rattle New Zealand.
Stymied by lack of partnerships and faced with a spiralling required run-rate, Seifert had to go for the jugular but it did not pay off.
Spinner Varun Chakravarthy had Seifert caught in the deep as New Zealand lost the top half of their batting for 72 to effectively drop out of the hunt. Santner, dropped on 26, went on to make 43 but India had the match in the bag by then. (Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in Ahmedabad; Editing by David Holmes and Toby Davis)
