Oman 221 for 9 was defeated by West Indies 222 for 3 (King 100, Hope 63*, Kaleemullah 1-49) by seven wickets.
In Harare, West Indies defeated Oman with ease by seven wickets thanks to a focused bowling effort and a century from Brandon King. Before Oman was weighed down by the spinners and never able to progress past third gear, Kyle Mayers and Romario Shepherd were the bowlers of choice. King and Shai Hope, who added another half-century to his already impressive total, guided the West Indies to their first victory in the Super Six phases of the World Cup Qualifier, and they did so with more than ten overs remaining overs in excess.
This game lacked the fervor of many others because both teams had already been eliminated, and it was obvious to the mostly empty Harare crowd. Shepherd and Mayers perforated Oman early, and Jatinder Singh and captain Aqib Ilyas fell easily. But a run of self-destruction continued through a three-run-out Oman inning. That strategy saw Kashyap Prajapati be the first victim as Roston Chase pounced on errant behavior.
After Oman’s intent was absent during the middle overs, Akeal Hosein, Roston Chase, and Kevin Sinclair grabbed control of them and quickly batted them through as the run rate dwindled. As evidenced by the barrage of dot balls in the middle overs, sporadic aggressive outbursts weren’t consistently followed by an effective rotation of strikes. Oman was in danger of losing early as three quick wickets fell through the middle overs, but Shoaib Khan and Suraj Kumar’s tenacious resistance saved them.
They crossed the 200-run mark thanks to an 85-run stand, but the dreaded run-out soon followed. Suraj wasn’t interested when Shoaib requested a single from the non-striker’s end, but West Indies was more than glad to send Shoaib on his way. After that, the innings ended quickly as Oman slumped to 221 runs.
There was no tournament-related pressure, and there was no scoreboard pressure either. Early on, Oman was dealt a blow when two of Johnson Charles’ stumps were uprooted by a beautiful in dinger from Kaleemullah, but West Indies proceeded comfortably for the remainder of the first powerplay. When Keacy Carty was exhausted, King had already found his rhythm and was finding runs to be much easier to come by. Oman had little defense as they slid right through the target as he teamed up with the team’s greatest hitter, Hope.
The West Indies have little to celebrate in this tournament, but King was still able to reach his second hundred as the finish line got closer. Though Bilal Khan had him nick off two balls later, Shepherd he would not be able to complete the task because Hope had already reached his half-century and West Indies were advancing quickly toward the finish line. The victory for West Indies came from Nicholas Pooran’s flawless 19-ball 24, but it won’t matter much because the team did what needed to be done.
