Kolkata: Oman rode quick and resilient fifties from Aamir Kaleem and Hammad Mirza to give India a mighty scare before Hardik Pandya took a brilliant catch of Kaleem on the boundary and dismissed Mirza in the 19th over to seal a 21-run victory on Friday. Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy were rested, but India’s bowling was still armed to the teeth to dismantle Oman. The associate nation however kept punching above their weight, first by restricting India to 188/8 before putting up a spirited chase. Oman snailed to 62/1 in the first 10 overs but then scored 87 in the next 46 balls, courtesy a 93-run stand between Kaleem and Mirza. In the end though, India’s experience pulled them through.
Oman’s Aamir Kaleem (R) plays a shot during the Asia Cup 2025 Twenty20 international cricket match between India and Oman at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on September 19, 2025. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP) (AFP)
Taking into account the gulf in class, nothing less than at least 200 should have sufficed against Oman. But the ball was gripping, Oman were bowling tight lines and India anyway refuse to be judged by current benchmarks. Which is why Suryakumar Yadav kept pushing himself down the order till even Harshit Rana came before him. That decision probably cost maybe a couple of more boundaries but since they could afford to experiment without ever worrying about the result, India pushed themselves all the way.
Ominous was how some of the right-handers struggled but most of the left-handers made light work of the bowling. Abhishek Sharma missed out on a fifty but his strike rate of 253 was exactly the start India were seeking. Targeting mostly the straighter boundaries, Axar Patel ended up with a strike rate of 200. And Tilak Varma, who came at No 7 for the first time in his international career, returned a strike rate of 161. Only Shivam Dube missed out among the left-handed batters, getting dismissed after miscueing a length ball from slow left-arm bowler Kaleem.
One crucial part of this experiment was to see how Sanju Samson would fare without opening the batting. He would have probably been slated for No 5 but thanks to Suryakumar’s punt, Samson came at one down with 111 balls left in the innings. Filled with leading edges and streaky boundaries, his was by no means an authoritative innings, but Samson needed a good innings to boost the possibility of him coming lower down the order in future.
The start was slow though—Samson was on 13 off 14 balls at one point. But he broke the shackles by hitting a six followed by a boundary off wristspinner Samay Shrivatsava. Another six off Zikria Islam, hitting him straight over his head, raised hope that Samson would finally shift gears but that was not to be. What helped Samson make his case though was the intent to keep the board ticking even if he wasn’t connecting properly. The half-century came in 41 balls, but three balls later Samson holed out in the 18th over, leaving India’s lower order a tall order in the last two overs with Suryakumar choosing to remain in the dugout.
Being relentless about going after the bowling is the job description nowadays and India lost clusters of wickets pursuing that. Thankfully, they still managed to build some decent partnerships—a second-wicket stand of 66 runs between Sharma and Samson, 45 runs between Patel and Samson, and 41 between Varma and Samson. It can be argued Samson’s innings was the glue that held together India’s innings but it didn’t come at the rate that he would have loved. And that affected India’s innings progression as well—60 from the powerplay, 80 runs from overs 7-15 and 48 from the last five.
Oman’s high points? Several. The chase was definitely memorable but also ardent was their bowling and catching. Among the dismissals, Shah Faisal uprooting Shubman Gill was definitely special. Setting Gill up with balls that were leaving, Faisal bowled a full length ball that pitched and nipped back in. Gill wanted to cover drive him, but the ball went through the gap between his bat and pad to clatter into his stumps. Sensational though was how Jiten Ramanandi ran out Hardik Pandya, sticking out his left hand to get a finger on the ball hit back by Samson. Eleven overs later, Arshdeep too faced a similar fate off the same bowler.
