Cricket: Oman defeat Singapore for successive victory in ICC WCL Division 3

Sports Saturday 27/May/2017 19:59 PM
By: Times News Service
Cricket: Oman defeat Singapore for successive victory in ICC WCL Division 3

Muscat: Brilliant bowling performances, including a five-wicket haul by Bilal Khan, and composed batting from trio of Sultan Ahmed, Ajay Lalcheta and Aaqib Ilyas helped Oman record a five-wicket victory over Singapore in the ongoing ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 3 competition in Uganada on Saturday.
Electing to field first, Oman bowled out Singapore for 100 in 37.1 overs before achieving their target in just 24.1 overs for the loss of five wickets.
The result, their second successive win after Friday’s six-wicket victory against hosts Uganda, put Oman firmly on the path to the final and a possible promotion to Division 2.
Oman, with six points after three wins from four matches, currently occupy second place in the six-team competition behind table toppers Canada, who too have six points with three wins from four matches.
They are followed by Uganda and Singapore, both on four points, and U.S. and Malaysia, on two points each, in that order.
Though Oman are now close to the the final, Duleep Mendis-coached side have to defeat bottom placed Malaysia in their final league match on Monday to seal their berth in the summit clash.
In Monday’s other matches, Canada play Singapore and Uganda square off against U.S.
Five-wicket haul
On Saturday, Oman captain Sultan Ahmed won the toss and elected to field first against Singapore. Left-arm pace bowler Bilal Khan struck two early blows, removing both the openers Salladore Vijaykumar (4) and Chamunda Ruwan Kamarage (11) as Singapore were reduced to two for 24.
The City State team never recovered from that early set back. Besides Kamarage, Anish Param (34) and Chetan Suryawanshi (30) were the only batsmen to enter the double figures as the team were bundled out for 100.
While Bilal returned with the figures of five for 19 in 7.1 overs in the man of the match performance, fellow paceman Munis Ansari too troubled the Singapore batsman with his accurate bowling.
Though he has nothing to show in the wickets column, Munis had a miserly figures of 7-1-10-0.
Mohammed Nadeem and Khawar Ali, with two each, Aaqib Ilyas with one wicket, were Oman’s other wicket takers.
In reply, Oman were in a sort mess at the very beginning with both openers Khawar Ali and Jatinder Singh returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.
But skipper Sultan (32), who promoted himself to number three, and cool headed Ajay Lalcheta (37) steadied the ship before young Aaqib Ilyas completed the formalities with a 15-ball 22, which included five boundaries.
In the other matches played on Saturday, Canada defeated U.S. by 96 runs while Uganda recorded a five-wicket win over Malaysia.

SCOREBOARD
SINGAPORE

S. Vijayakumar c Khawar Ali b Bilal Khan 4
C. Kumarage c Sultan Ahmed b Bilal Khan 11
A. Paraam c Jatinder Singh b Mohammad Nadeem 34
A. Mutreja st Sultan Ahmed b Ajay Lalcheta 4
C. Suryawanshi c Zeeshan Maqsood b Khawar Ali 30
NMS Param lbw Mohammad Nadeem 1
Janak Prakash b Bilal Khan 3
M. Dharmichand lbw Khawar Ali 4
PA Dahiwal c Sultan Ahmed b Bilal Khan 4
A. Krishna b Bilal Khan 0
S. Appusamy (not out) 1
Extras (w-4) 4
Total (all out; 37.1 overs) 100
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-24, 3-35, 4-83, 5-86, 6-88, 7-92, 8-97, 9-97.
Bowling: Bilal Khan 7.1-2-19-5 (w-1); Munis Ansari 7-1-10-0 (w-1); Mohammad Nadeem 10-1-28-2 (w-2); Ajay Lalcheta 6-0-19-1; Khawar Ali 7-0-24-2.
OMAN
Khawar Ali c Suryawanshi b Janak Prakash 0
Jatinder Singh c Suryawanshi b Appusamy 0
Sultan Ahmed lbw Krishna 32
Ajay Lalcheta lbw Dharmichand 37
Naseem Khushi st Suryawanshi b Krishna 4
Aaqib Ilyas (not out) 22
Amir Ali (not out) 3
Extras (w-3) 3
Total (5 wkts; 24.1 overs) 101
Did not bat: Bilal Khan, M Ansari, Zeeshan Maqsood, Mohammad Nadeem
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-6, 3-69, 4-75, 5-93.
Bowling: Janak Prakash 4-1-14-1; S. Appusamy 3-0-15-1 (w-1); S. Vijayakumar 2-0-10-0; PA Dahiwal 6-1-14-0 (w-1); M. Dharmichand 5-1-19-1 (w-1); A. Krishna 4.1-0-29-2.
Man of the match: Bilal Khan (Oman)