[ad_1]
Key events
WICKET! Maxwell c Aqib Ilyas b Mehran Khan 0 (Australia 50-3)
A STONKINGLY GOOD CATCH! Aqib pulls off a diving catch in the covers to dismiss Glenn Maxwell for a golden duck! Mehran Khan is on a hat-trick!
WICKET! Marsh c Shoaib Khan b Mehran Khan 14 (Australia 50-2)
Caught at long on! In the slot from Mehran Khan but the Big Bison can’t clear the boundary rider!
8th over: Australia 50-1 (Warner 22, Marsh 14) Captain Aqib brings himself on for a bowl. Warner pushes into the covers for a single and in doing so goes past Aaron Finch to become Australia’s leading scorer in men’s T20Is. Finch is at the ground doing commentary and the two men somehow catch each other’s eye and have a giggle. A nice moment. Marsh nails a sweep for four to get the score to 50. Australia haven’t been able to get away here.
7th over: Australia 43-1 (Warner 21, Marsh 8) Mehran Khan into the attack with his box of medium pace cutters. He took 3-7 in the game against Namibia and was excellent. Marsh is tied down by the first two balls… but the third one is a front foot no ball! FREE HIT – Warner is down on one knee again and slices the wide but overcooked yorker away for a freebie four. Warner pings the ball into the ring where it is well stopped. Now then, keeper Athavale whips the bails off in lightning fashion off the final ball – a play and miss from Warner – has the opener toppled over here? Nope. Not out. Good work from Athavale though.
6th over: Australia 37-1 (Warner 17, Marsh 7) Shakheel again, he skids one onto Marsh’s pads and then hurries him up on the back foot with a scudder that keeps low. Shot! Marsh drives in the gap wide of cover for four, his first really fluent shot. He’ll be feeling the nerves this evening in his first run out as skipper. Swing and a miss! Marsh is nearly cleaned up having a huge mow across the line. A dot ball finishes the over and the PowerPlay – it’s been a nifty one for Oman.
5th over: Australia 32-1 (Warner 17, Marsh 2) Kaleemullah keeps Marsh honest, three dots and then a single off a sloppy bit of fielding in the ring. Warner has a better time of it – steering for two and then getting down on one knee to scoop away for a one bounce four.
4th over: Australia 25-1 (Warner 11, Marsh 1) Shakeel Ahmed into the attack with his pacey left arm spin. Gah! His first ball is a drag down that Warner clubs away for four. The bowler is on the button after that though, round the wicket and with a flat trajectory, firing it in at the stumps and pads. He beats Warner’s edge and gets out of the over for just six runs in total.
3rd over: Australia 19-1 (Warner 6, Marsh 0) Mitch Marsh arrives at the crease. Oman have a slip in place and Bilal Khan has his dander up. Marsh blocks back the final two balls of the over. Good stuff this.
WICKET! Head c Khalid Kail b Bilal Khan 12 (Australia 19-1)
Head can’t clear mid off with a lofted drive that was neither one thing nor t’other! Catch safely held and Oman are jubilant!
2nd over: Australia 13-0 (Warner 5, Head 7) Kaleemullah shares the new orb. He offers Warner width on a length and is duly spanked through the covers. Next ball he pins Warner on the pads and goes up for a HUGE appeal – he even trots towards towards Umpire Joel Wilson as he bellows. The Umpire says not out and then has a quiet word. “Don’t do that again, son” or something along those lines. It was sliding down. It’s another good over from Oman though, Head nearly chops on off the final ball throwing his hands at a ball on a fifth stump line, the ball squirting past his leg pole.
1st over: Australia 6-0 (Warner 1, Head 5) Warner clips off his pads to get off the mark first ball. Head blasts his first ball across the baize square of the wicket for four! The shot of a man in form and full of confidence. Bilal Khan tightens up though and there’s just one more single off the over. A decent start for Oman, who started with two slips in place… and soon removed one to bolster the field. They are up for this though!
Righto. Travis Head, meaty walrus moustache looking resplendent under the Barbados moon and fresh off a frighteningly good IPL campaign is striding out with equally hirsute Davey Warner. Bilal Khan is going to start for Oman with his skiddy left arm seam. Play!
The players are readying themselves on the boundary edge. It looks a clear and warm evening in Barbados. I could say much the same for South London…
You’ve got just about enough time to read Angus Fontaine on Mitch Marsh:
Teams:
Australia go in without Pat Cummins or Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis is given the nod.
Australia: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (c), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade (wk), Nathan Ellis, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Oman: Kashyap Prajapati, Pratik Athavale (wk), Aqib llyas (capt), Zeesham Maqsood, Khalid Kail, Ayaan Khan, Shoaib Khan, Mehran Khan, Shakeel Ahmed, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan
Oman win the toss and choose to bowl
Aqib Ilyas calls the coin correctly and says his side will chase, telling Nasser Hussain that, “It’s a fresh pitch and the bowlers did well last game, they are more confident.”
Mitchell Marsh loses his first toss as Captain but seems in good cheer as per. He says Australia would have bowled first as well. Full teams incoming!
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the OBO of Australia v Oman at the Kensington Oval. It’s Group B, it’s Barbados and it’s erm not quite the BIG ONE. Australia and England will duke it out on Saturday and there’s a little more spice sprinkled on that match already after the rain washed out the current holders’ first game against Scotland yesterday. With the points shared there is even less wiggle room in the group but Australia have the opportunity to get some breathing space, a win today will see them join Namibia at the top of the pile.
We’ll come to nascent Captain Mitch Marsh’s outfit shortly – but what of their opponents today? Oman narrowly lost their opening fixture to Namibia on a Super Over, they’ve never come up against Australia before but their Captain, Aqib Ilyas, was wonderfully bullish in his pre-match presser – stating that whilst they respect the Australian players…
“Once you step into the field, there is no big name, there is no one bigger than you… It’s another game for us and we don’t think that we are going to play someone extraordinary.”
Ilyas will be hoping that the Kensington Oval wicket is something of a stodgy turner and thus allow his side of many spinners the opportunity to get to work stiflin’ and skittlin’ the powerhouse Australian outfit.
Australia? Well m’colleague Martin Pegan has done the hard yards so I don’t have to, thanks to him for preparing something a little earlier on where the Aussies are at.
Australia will again be hoping that familiarity breeds success as they aim to complete the set of ICC silverware at the T20 World Cup in the US and Caribbean. To put the finishing touches on the historic haul, the current men’s ODI World Cup and World Test Championship titleholders have turned to an experienced squad that has been key to the glory days, though this time will be under the guidance of Mitch Marsh in his first major tournament as captain.
The 15-player squad includes nine from the XI that lined up in the T20 World Cup final three years ago when Australia broke New Zealand hearts to clinch what remains the men’s only triumph from eight attempts. The concern is that much the same group of players were unable to hit similar heights when failing to progress past the group stage on home soil a year later. Travis Head and Nathan Ellis are the only fresh faces this time around.
Australia might have only won the men’s T20 World Cup once in eight attempts but, as became increasingly apparent at the ODI World Cup last year, always carry an imposing aura into international tournaments. While no nation has held all three men’s ICC titles at once, let alone considering that Australia’s all-conquering women’s outfit also have a firm grip on their ODI World Cup and T20 World Cup crowns, the current squad has the runs on the board to be trusted to now entrench their legacy and lay down another marker to be considered among the all-time greats.”
You heard the man – Australia’s hunt for the third ICC gong starts here.
Play gets underway in Barbados at 8:30pm local time, 10:30am AEST and 1:30am BST where I am in foggy old London town.
Do get in touch if you are tuning in – I’m on the email and X @Jimbo_Cricket for my sins.
