Scotland thrash Oman to pile pressure on England – Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports

North Sound is a tiny cricket venue in Antigua. The stadium is named after Sir Vivian Richards. Over there, Scotland scored a fairly comfortable win against Oman in a Group B fixture of the T20 World Cup. Having restricted the Asian side to 150-7, they made it home in 13.1 overs.

And believe it or not, Scotland after this win are topping the group table, ahead of Australia and England — the winners of the T20 World Cup in the last two editions. It was not exactly a superlative performance, but clinical enough. Brandon McMullen was the star of the show, his unbeaten 61 off 31 balls taking the sheen off Oman’s Pratik Athavale’s 54 off 40 balls.

It was not going to be a tremendous chase. And Scotland’s approach stuck to the methods of plain and sensible batting. There was no panic. There was no need to go for the jugular and they did not. Other than McMullen’s brisk effort, things were calm. Not for a moment did they seem out of it against a moderate total on a pitch conducive for scoring.

Opener George Munsey set the tone with a 20-ball 41 featuring four sixes. The total was 86 for two when he departed in the eighth over. The game was decided by then. The pace he set was too much to handle for Oman, who tried their best but came up second. It was a thoroughly professional performance from a team, which has had a few good results in the 50-over World Cups.

Oman were not doing well in spite of the fine effort from Athavale. Ayyan Khan did his best to resurrect the innings. But despite his unbeaten 41 off 39 balls, the innings did not really have any serious impetus. Almost everybody else failed and the outcome was a less than ideal total. Credit goes to Scotland’s bowling and fielding for that.

This result keeps things open for the unexpected from this group. Scotland have played three games, one more than Australia and England. But that does not mean that the traditional favourites will make it to the Super Eight. They have to be on their toes and win their remaining games to live to their billing. Scotland, meanwhile, will believe that they can cause damage to the stronger sides.