Richie Berrington’s unbeaten 47 and some tight bowling helped Scotland beat Oman by seven wickets and go atop the points table in the quadrangular Twenty20 International series on Sunday, 17 February at Al Amarat, Oman.
Scotland won the toss and put Oman in, and some disciplined bowling by the visitors helped them skittle the hosts for 111. Scotland’s batsmen did not have to do much to chase the target down, which they did with 4.3 overs to spare.
Oman’s start was hampered by Alasdair Evans and debutant Adrian Neill, who dismissed three of Oman’s top four to reduce the hosts to 13/4 inside the first six overs. Oman could not recover from the early blows and kept losing wickets regularly.
? Our 7-wicket win over Oman inside 16 overs means we win the Quadrangular Series on net run-rate!
A fantastic innings from @Berrington44 and an impressive debut from @AdrianNeill sees us top of the table. ?#FollowScotland ??????? pic.twitter.com/MbtDg5g5TF
— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) February 17, 2019
Even as captain Ajay Lalcheta (13) and Mohammad Nadeem (29) added 25 runs for the fifth wicket, the home side were reduced to 76/7 by the time Nadeem was dismissed and it took a 19-ball 38 with two fours and two sixes by Sandeep Goud to take Oman past the 100-run mark.
Evans picked up two wickets while Neill got three. Mark Watt was the most successful Scotland bowler on the day, finishing with 3/20 off his four overs.
In reply, George Munsey and Kyle Coetzer added 25 runs in the first 2.3 overs before both the batsmen were dismissed by Nadeem to reduce Scotland to 30/2. Bilal Khan got wicket-keeper batsman Matthew Cross caught by Lalcheta for 10 to make it 42/3 for the visitors.
#OMAvSCO | Scotland win! ?@Berrington44 (47*) hits the winning runs with a boundary!
We beat Oman by 7 wickets. Get in. ?#FollowScotland ???????
— CS+ (@CricketScoPLUS) February 17, 2019
But Callum MacLeod and Richie Berrington steadied the ship for Scotland and put together a match-winning, unbeaten 63-run stand for the fourth wicket, taking their team past the 50-run mark and 100 as well.
MacLeod finished unbeaten on 29 off 28 while Berrington was more aggressive with 47* off 29 with six fours and two sixes and sealed the game for his team with a boundary.
With this victory, Scotland went to the top of the points table with four points from three games. Oman were consigned to their third successive defeat and now sit at the bottom of the table.
