World champions India overcame a gutsy Oman team to win the last group match of the men’s Asia Cup by 21 runs on Friday and stay unbeaten in the T20 tournament.
India had already qualified for the Super Four stage and posted 188-8 after they elected to bat first at Abu Dhabi.
Oman — ranked 20th in world T20 rankings — put up a spirited batting show and finished on 167-4 after top knocks from Aamir Kaleem, who made 64, and Hammad Mirza, who hit 51.
The left-right batting pair of Kaleem and Mirza put on 93 runs for the second wicket and attempted to pull off the chase with some late boundaries that gave India a scare.
Hardik Pandya broke the stand with a stunning outfield catch to dismiss Kaleem off Harshit Rana and then sent back Mirza with his pace bowling in the next over.
Left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh snared the fourth wicket of the innings and his 100th in T20 internationals — the first Indian bowler to reach the century mark.
Earlier, wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson top-scored with 56, and his second-wicket partnership with explosive opener Abhishek Sharma, who made 38 off 14 balls, laid the platform for India’s total.
Oman struck regular blows in their first meeting with the reigning T20 World Cup winners.
Shah Faisal, fellow left-arm quick Jiten Ramanandi and left-arm spinner Kaleem took two wickets each.
Pakistan and India moved into the Super Four from Group A and face each other again on Sunday, a week after India’s players refused to shake hands with their neighbours after victory in a group match.
Sri Lanka clash with Bangladesh in the first match of the Super Four on Saturday after the two teams made the next stage from Group B.
Teams:
Oman: Jatinder Singh (captain), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla (wicket-keeper), Shah Faisal, Mohammad Nadeem, Aryan Bisht, Zikria Islam, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, and Jiten Ramanandi
India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, and Kuldeep Yadav.
