Cricket Oman were a confident bunch after the T20 encounters against Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland but all the confidence built was broken down in the most embarrassment of sorts, as they could not last even 20 overs in a 50-overs game and got bowled out for only 24 as Scotland’s combined effort from Ruaidri Smith (4/7) and Adrian Neill (4/7) made them register the 4th lowest team total in all List-A status matches held till date.
Oman’s Khawar Ali was the only player to reach double-figures, making 15 runs in the process. Scotland’s third seam bowler Alasdair Evans took 2/10 to complete a total clean-up of a messed up morning for Oman batting line-up.
And all it took were 20 deliveries for Scotland as captain Kyle Coetzer (16 n.o) and Matt Cross (10 n.o) completed the routing in the 4th over and won the game with 280 deliveries to spare. Both sides will meet again on 20th & 22nd in the 3-match series in Scotland’s tour of Oman.
Oman, who were resting quite a few regular players in their XI, will surely field their experienced players in the remaining two matches to put up a challenge to Scotland, who are currently putting no foot wrong in their gameplay.