India 188 for 8 (Samson 56, Abhishek 38, Faisal 2-23, Kaleem 2-31, Ramanandi 2-33) beat Oman 167 for 4 (Kaleem 64, Mirza 51) by 21 runs
After their batters got only around 20 overs of crease-time across their first two games against UAE and Pakistan,
India batted first for the first time in the
Asia Cup and posted 188 for 8 against
Oman. All their batters got a hit in the middle except their captain Suryakumar Yadav, who did not come out to bat despite India losing eight wickets. Though Oman made a creditable impression with both ball and bat, they could not overcome India's might and depth.
Abhishek Sharma did Abhishek Sharma things, clattering 38 off 15 balls. He was the only India batter with a strike rate of over 200 on an Abu Dhabi pitch that offered grip and turn.
Sanju Samson, who slotted in at No.3, was less fluent, but moved to a 41-ball fifty. Cameos from Tilak Varma (29 off 18), Axar Patel (26 off 13), and Harshit Rana (13* off 8) then pushed India up towards 190.
India had rested their bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and newly minted
No.1 T20I bowler Varun Chakravarthy, but Kuldeep Yadav befuddled Oman's batters with his variations. Oman openers
Aamir Kaleem and
Jatinder Singh struck up a 56-run partnership but by the time Kuldeep broke it in the ninth over, the asking rate had shot up to 12. Though Kaleem and No.3
Hammad Mirza made battling half-centuries, they could not find the higher gears that could have hurt India. In pursuit of 189, Oman finished with 167 for 4.
Having applied so much scoreboard pressure on Oman, India could afford to experiment with their bowling too. Tilak and Abhishek were among eight bowlers India used on Friday.
Abhishek's opening salvo
Left-arm seamer
Shah Faisal dealt India an early blow when he castled Shubman Gill for 5 with a sharp inswinger in the second over. However, that didn't stop Abhishek from lining up Oman's bowlers in the powerplay.
Abhishek claimed 38 of the 60 runs India had scored in the first six overs. Left-arm fingerspinner Shakeel Ahmed got away with the first ball he bowled to Abhishek, but the batter took him for two fours and a six in the third over. Shakeel tried to drag the ball away from Abhishek's reach with his sharp angle from left-arm around, but the left-handed opener still found a counter.
Oman's seamers then took pace off, but nobody can take Abhishek's power away. When Mohammad Nadeem bowled a slower ball into the pitch, Abhishek forayed down the track and scythed it over point. Then, when Jiten Ramanandi dug a 104kph delivery into the pitch, Abhishek pumped it for a straight six.
He got a reprieve on 21 when he tickled Nadeem down the leg side, but Vinayak Shukla, the Oman keeper, shelled the catch and umpire Raveendra Wilalasiri eventually deemed it as a wide ball. Abhishek added 17 to his tally before nicking another one behind, Shukla making no mistake this time.
