🏏T20 Asia Cup 2025- Pak vs Oman 4th Match, Group A, Dubai🏏 - Page 11

A strange innings, given the approach Pakistan would have wanted to follow and what they ended up doing. Haris was promoted to No.3 and he provided all the impetus and the big hits towards the end of the powerplay and during the middle overs. Farhan, though, struggled for rhythm throughout, as did most of the other batters, barring Mohammad Nawaz.

Oman will be pretty happy with this effort. At the half-way stage, it seemed Pakistan would push towards 200 but Oman applied the brakes post the drinks break, and did not relent, with their death-bowling also quite tidy, barring the odd over. This will still take some chasing, considering this is a slightly sluggish and two-paced surface and given Pakistan's bowling quality. But Oman have given themselves a shot at it. Join us in a bit for the chase!

Pakistan have managed to get a good score on the board, thanks to some late hitting by Mohammad Nawaz. Oman were putting on a squeeze but Nawaz got some timely hits to the fence when the others struggled to connect. Earlier, after Saim Ayub took the review with him for plumb LBW, Farhan and Haris were pretty modest in the powerplay, only to be bettered by a 16-run sixth over to better the scoreboard. Farhan had a life on 3 but Haris switched gears and recorded his fifty. Pakistan lost their way with 3 wickets for 13 runs but Nawaz and Fakhar managed to drag them to a good score on this sluggish pitch. Three wickets apiece for Shah Faisal and Aamir Kaleem but special mention to Shakeel Ahmed for bowling a 4-over spell for 17 runs without conceding a single boundary.

Jatinder Singh almost retired from cricket in June 2024 due to an injury. But here he is now, leading Oman into their maiden Asia Cup, hoping to cause an upset or two.

Oman bowlers by lengths today (excluding extras)

Seamers

Full: 4/46, 35 balls (ER: 7.9)

Good: 0/29, 18 balls (ER: 9.66)

Short: 0/21, 13 balls (ER: 9.69)

Spinners

Full: 3/20, 23 balls (ER: 5.21)

Good: 0/12, 6 balls (ER: 12)

Short: 0/28, 25 balls (ER: 6.72)

Sahibzada Farhan in T20Is

vs right-arm bowlers: 300 off 206, Avg: 25, SR: 145.63

vs left-arm bowlers: 106 off 112, Avg: 11.77, SR: 94.64

*pace and spin combined

- Of the 18 Pakistan players to have batted at least 10 innings in the top three in T20Is till date, Mohammad Haris has the highest strike-rate (144.75), followed by Shahid Afridi (137.62).

- For further context, 16 batters from full-member teams have a 150-plus SR while batting in the top-three in Men’s T20Is (min. 10 innings), five of them for India (Pakistan’s next opponent). Four of them - Abhishek Sharma (193.49), Sanju Samson (174.52), Tilak Varma (169.73) and Suryakumar Yadav (166.86) - are featuring in this tournament, the fifth being Yashasvi Jaiswal (164.31).

Aamir Kaleem and Jatinder Singh are at the crease. Aamir Kaleem is on strike. Shaheen Afridi will open the attack

Welcome back. The players are out there in the middle. Shaheen Shah Afridi has the ball and is talking to Fakhar. Shaheen will start off. A wide slip in.

Govardhan : "Good job from Oman Team taking wickets and keeping Pakistan under 180 score. Let's see how they bat."

1.1

Saim Ayub to Jatinder Singh, out Bowled!! Cleaned up. The carrom-ball, flicked from the hand, drifts into leg-stump, then turns away, Jatinder Singh closes the face of the bat too early, misses the flick, hits the back pad and then clips the off-stump. That turned quite a bit after pitching and Saim Ayub is all smiles after that wicket. Jatinder Singh b Saim Ayub 1(3)

Saim Ayub to Jatinder Singh, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Fahad: "Mark my words!! I have a gut feeling Pakistan will win this by 80 runs." -- Well, that is some prediction at this stage...