Zimbabwe dominate Oman on return to T20 World Cup

COLOMBO: Zimbabwe returned to the T20 World Cup in emphatic fashion on Monday, strolling to an eight-wicket win over Oman at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club.

In their first T20 World Cup since 2022, Zimbabwe skittled Oman for 103 before knocking off the runs with 39 balls to spare.

Brian Bennett was unbeaten on 48 and Brendan Taylor, 40, who played in the first T20 World Cup in 2007, made 31 before retiring hurt.

Zimbabwe’s quick bowling twin towers Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani did the early damage, reducing Oman to 27-5 with none of their top order managing to get into double figures.

“We have to take it game by game and we are very happy with the win,” said Muzarabani, who won the player-of-the-match award.

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“I am just coming from a back injury and didn’t want to really push it, so I shortened my run a bit. There was some good bounce on the pitch and I thought we used the conditions well.”

A face-saving 42-run stand for the sixth wicket between Sufyan Mehmood and Vinayak Shukla gave Oman’s total some respectability.

Ngarava finished with 3-17 and Muzarabani 3-16. Brad Evans provided the perfect first-change foil, hitting a nagging line and length to take 3-18.

Shukla top scored for Oman with 28 and Mehmood got 25.

When the chase started, Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani raced to 30 off 19 deliveries before two wickets brought Taylor to the crease.

The veteran showed some discomfort running between the wickets and retired hurt with victory four runs away, leaving skipper Sikandar Raza to finish the job with a boundary.