England secured their first win at the 2024 T20 World Cup with an utter domination of Oman, winning by eight wickets with 101 balls to spare. After bowling out their opponents for just 47 runs in the space of 80 balls, England were able to knock off the runs in just 19 balls at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
Adil Rashid was the pick of the bowlers with a terrific spell of 4 for 11, while Jofra Archer and Mark Wood had 3 wickets apiece. With the bat, Jos Butler scored a blistering 24 runs in just 8 balls and his opening partner Phil Salt had 12 in 3 deliveries.
England entered the matcht needing not only to win, but to win quickly, given that Scotland was 4 points ahead with a higher net run rate. Buttler won the toss and decided to bowl first, stating the team wanted to know the number of runs they were chasing. It turned out to be the right decision.
Oman didn’t stand much of a chance against the two pacemen of England. Archer and Wood steamed in to take two wickets each early and set their opponents back to 25-4. It was then Adil Rashid’s turn to dominate as he broke through with his first ball, immediately pushing Oman back to 25 for 5.
Rashid ended up bowling all four of his overs in a row, taking a wicket in each of them. He allowed just the solitary boundary and bowled a remarkable 20 dot balls.
Wood picked up his 50th T20I wicket with a full-length ball which created an inside-edge from Ayaan Khan and Archer finished the innings in his final over. At the end of the carnage, Oman only had 47 runs on the board with 40 balls to spare.
England started off their innings destructively, as Phil Salt scored 12 runs off his first 3 balls. Meanwhile Buttler bludgeoned Bilal for four fours and a six in his second over. Needing just 19 balls to score the required 48, the match ended as one of the most one-sided World Cup matches of all-time.
With the win, England put themselves in a solid position to take the second spot in their Group behind Australia. Assuming England beat Namibia on Saturday, Scotland would need to defeat tournament favourites Australia if they hope to progress to the Super 8s.
Bangladesh Beat Netherlands By 25 Runs
Bangladesh picked up a much needed victory over the Netherlands on Thursday, which puts them in a good position to qualify for the Super 8s. The 25-run win was Bangladesh’s second win of the tournament after defeating Sri Lanka earlier on in the competition.
Veteran Shakib Al Hasan made his return to Bangladesh and scored his first fifty in T20I innings to get Bangladesh to 159 for 5. Netherlands started off the chase well, getting to 111 for 3, before faltering and finishing on 134/8 in their 20 overs.
Leg spinner Rishad Hossain took three wickets in four balls which changed the entire course of the match. Shakib and Mustafizur Rahman then clamped down on the Netherlands batting lineup which lost 4 wickets for just 6 runs in the space of 16 balls.
Even with the huge collapse, Netherlands had a chance at the end, needing 36 runs off the last two overs. Unfortunately for them, Mustafizur was too good in the death overs, bowling cutters to only concede 3 runs in the 19th over. Taskin Ahmed then bowled out the innings with 33 runs to defend, taking a wicket off his last ball to finish with figures of 2 for 30.
Shakib Al Hasan was named Man of the Match for his 64 runs with the bat in the middle of the Bangladesh innings and economical bowling spell.
The result does not quite give Bangladesh a sure-shot place in the Super Eight but it has knocked Sri Lanka from contention. If Bangladesh wins their last match against Nepal or Netherlands loses their final match to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh would advance.
