No Asia Cup glory for spirited Oman as India win by 21 runs

Abu Dhabi: Despite the spirited fight back, Oman failed to outsmart India as they were defeated by 21 runs in the last group league fixture of the Asia Cup in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

Chasing an imposing 189, Oman came close to upsetting the apple cart, but eventually ended their innings at 167 for four.
Aamir Kaleem made a valiant 64 off 46 balls while adding 56 runs with skipper Jatinder Singh (32 off 33 balls) and 93 runs with Hammad Mirza, who slammed 51 off 33 balls.

Earlier, Sanju Samson struck a 45-ball 56 in his first outing as a top-order batter in the tournament, and southpaw opener Abhishek Sharma provided the early momentum with a 15-ball 38 as India scored 188 for eight.

In reply, Oman seemed happy keeping the wicket in the early part of the innings. In the power play, they scored a cautious 44 runs. By the time of the first break, they moved to 62 for 1. 

Then they accelerated, reaching the 100-mark in the 14th over. Though Aamir Kaleem and Hammad Mirza spearheaded the fight, they were late in pressing the accelerator. In the end, 189 was too big an ask for the ICC associate member nation.

Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh became the first Indian bowler to reach 100 wickets in men's T20 Internationals when he dismissed Vinayak Shukla in the last over of the match.

Knowing this was a dead rubber, India were in an experimental mode. While Sanju was promoted to No. 3, skipper Suryakumar Yadav slotted himself to come as the 10th man. He did not have to bat. They used eight bowlers as if to check their bench strength.

Sanju, on his part, took time as he steadied the Indian innings after the team lost opener Abhishek Sharma and all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the same over. Sharma, who had galloped to 38 in 15 balls with five 4s and two 6s, was caught behind, before Pandya was run out at the bowler's end backing up too far in the seventh over.   

Sanju got off to a slow start (at one time, he had made only 13 in 14 balls), but went on an overdrive with a six and a four off spinner Samay Shrivatsava. Then he cracked Zikria Islam for a straight six in the 10th over before slowing down again.

He was holed out at the deep midwicket trying to lift a length ball, delivered outside off-stump.  

Brief scores: India 188/8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 38, Sanju Samson 56, Axar Patel 26, Tilak Varma 29; Aamir Kaleem 2/31, Shah Faisal 2/23, Jiten Ramanandi 2/33) bt Oman: 167/4 in 20 overs (Aamir Kaleem 64, Hammad Mirza 51).