New Delhi: The United States defeated Oman by 57 runs in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 match in Al Amerat on Tuesday, February 18. They successfully defended the lowest-ever total of 122 runs in an uninterrupted ODI match. Earlier, the record for defending the lowest ODI was held by the Men In Blue when they successfully defended 125 runs against Pakistan in the Rothmans Four-Nations Cup in 1985. Team India won the match by 38 runs in Sharjah.
Batting first, the USA struggled against Oman’s disciplined spin attack. Opener Smit Patel and skipper Monank Patel departed on a duck as the visitors lost five wickets in the first 13 overs of the match. Milind Kumar scored an unbeaten crucial 47 runs off 82 balls with the help of 6 boundaries and helped the team’s score to go past 100.
Aaron James and Sanjay Krishnamurthi also made valuable contributions with the bat. Shakeel Ahmed took 3 wickets while Aamir Kaleem and Samay Shrivastava picked up 2 wickets each. Chasing the 123-run target, Oman bowled out for 65 runs in 25.3 overs. Nosthush Kenjige picked up 5 wickets while Yasir Mohammad and Milind Kumar also took two wickets each as the hosts crumbled under relentless pressure, with their batting unit failing to deliver.
All spin, no pace
The USA’s match against Oman was dominated by spin. For the first time in 4671 completed ODI games, all the nine bowlers used in the match were spinners. The game set another record as all 19 wickets were taken by the spin bowlers equaling the previous record held in the match between Bangladesh and Pakistan in Chattogram in 2011.
The dominance of spin bowlers and low scores have been a trend at Al Amerat in the ongoing tournament, especially in matches involving Oman. Teams batting first have been bundled out for fewer than 170 in all eight matches of Oman, while the other four games had 240-plus totals. In the previous match at the same venue on Sunday, Oman lost eight wickets in their chase of 96 runs against Namibia. JJ Smit was the only pace bowler in that game who bowled an over.
The USA defeated Oman by 57 runs in the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 match at Al Amerat. The visitors also broke India’s 40-year-old ODI record. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
