T20 Asia Final: Nepal, UAE, Oman Go Two In Two, Bahrain Edge Past Hong Kong

T20 World Cup Final Asia: Aqib Ilyas’ 63 (35) powered Oman to their second win, despite Singapore’s valiant effort at Kirtipur on Day 2 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Final Asia. In Mulpani, Bahrain defended 146 against Hong Kong, China to register their first win of the tournament, keeping their World Cup hopes alive.

The hosts Nepal carried their winning momentum in the afternoon match in Kirtipur with another chase, beating Malaysia by 6 wickets in front of the home crowd. Similarly, the UAE continued their run with a 5-wicket victory over Kuwait in Mulpani.

Winning the toss, Singapore invited Oman to bat first in the morning match at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur. Oman had a decent start, adding up 41 runs and losing a wicket in the powerplay.

After the dismissal of Kashyap Prajapati for 12(19), Pratik Athavale and Aqib Ilyas added 50 runs between them. The partnership broke when Anish Paraam got the wicket of Athavale on 42(32).

Aqib Ilyas got to his sixth T20I half-century in the 14th over, after he struck 30 runs off the over on Paraam’s bowling. Ilyas went on to score 63 runs off 35 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes, before being sent back by Janak Prakash.

Singapore bounced back in the game after Oman lost four wickets in the last four overs, adding 28 runs in the process, to end with 174/6 in 20 overs with Janak Prakash, Ramesh Kalimuthu and Anish Paraam all getting 2 wickets each for Singapore.

In reply, the Singaporean batting lineup put up a decent fight but the Omani bowlers ultimately had the final laugh. After losing both openers for under 50 runs, Surendran Chandramohan contributed with 41 runs off 31 balls but was sent back after he was dismissed hit wicket. Manpreet Singh and Anish Paraam also added 26 and 31 valuable runs to the total respectively, but a lower-order collapse saw Oman cross the finish line.

In the process of restricting Singapore to 152/8, Oman’s duo of Bilal Khan and Fayyaz Butt picked 2 wickets each in their four overs, not giving more than 6 runs per over. Shakeel Ahmed, Zeeshan Maqsood, Aqib Ilyas and Mohammad Nadeem all got 1 wicket apiece.

Aqib, for his match-winning all-round performance, was named the Player of the Match.

Brief Scores:

Nepal 166/4 in 18 Overs (Kusha Malla 65, Muhammad Amir 3-18) beat Malaysia 165/9 in 20 Overs (Syed Aziz 68, Abinash Bohara 4-27) by 6 wickets.

Bahrain 146/10 in 19.3 Overs (Imran Ali 62, Nasrulla Rana 3-21) beat Hong Kong, China 126/10 in 19.1 Overs (Anshuman Rath 28, Abdul Majid 3-7) by 20 runs.

United Arab Emirates 94/5 in 14.2 Overs (Muhammad Waseem 33, Mohammed Aslam 3-17) beat Kuwait 88/8 in 20 Overs (Ravija Sandaruwan 22, Zahoor Khan 2-13) by 5 wickets.