MUSCAT: It was a dominating display by the local lads as hosts Oman U19 team made a clean sweep in the four-match bilateral 50-over-a-side series against Hong Kong at the Oman Cricket Academy Ground in Al Amerat recently.
Coached by Adeel Shafique, the hosts won all their matches, played over seven days, by a comfortable margin, underlining their superiority in all departments of the game.
For Hong Kong, who are currently playing the six-nation Asia Regional Qualifier in the UAE, it was not the best of results ahead of the Qualifier. Just one spot is available for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024 from the ongoing Asia Qualifier, which began on February 24. Beside Hong Kong, the other nations in fray are Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal,
Singapore and hosts UAE.
Oman won the first match by 46 runs with debutant Mustaqeem Sayed hammering 86 runs. Mustaqeem continued his rich vein of form to emerge as the hosts highest run-getter with a total of 165 runs in four innings.
Oman had scored 215/8 in the 50 overs and then restricted the visitors to 169/9 in the ooener.
Glen Menezes stood out with his bowling throughout the series as he bagged a total of 11 wickets with an economy of 3.14, three of which came in the first match.
The storyline remained the same in the next match, this time, Hong Kong batting first. Oman bowled them out for paltry 137 in 47 overs with Aryan Bisht picking three wickets. The home team canterd to victory in 25 overs with skipper Aditya Gurumukhi hitting a half-century.
The third match witnessed Oman putting up a huge total of 288/8 and then bowling out Hong Kong for meagre 108. Bisht shone with bat this time as he slammed a 67-ball 69 while Menezes ran through the rival batting lineup with a five-wicket haul and mesmerising figures of 10-3-23-5.
In the concluding game, Hong Kong batted first and were bowled out for 178 in the 48th over. The hosts needed only 37.4 overs to reach the target with Devansh Loya stroking an unbeaten 52.
Such was the hosts superiority that Hong Kong failed to bowl out Oman in any of the matches, while the local lads bowled out their rivals on three occasions. The only exception was in the opening game when Hong Kong batted the complete 50 overs for 169/9.
For Hong Kong, the highest run-scorer was Shiv Mathur with 127 in four games.
Another promising display among Oman bowlers was from Mohammed Arafat Islam, who picked six wickets in the series with an economy of 3.06.
Following the morale-boosting series triumph, Shafique's boys have plenty of time to prepare for their next major assignment in November.
Oman will compete in the ACC Men’s U19 Premier Cup in November 2023 with eight other Associate Asian nations and two other qualifying teams from ACC U19 Challenger Cup.
The ten nations will vie for the three spots available for the Men’s U19 Asia Cup in December 2023. The top-three sides of Premier Cup will then join India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in the U19 Asia Cup.
