By Grockle
October 19 2026

In the year's of covering Oman and Associate cricket, I have never seen Oman beat Nepal livein a gameIwas at or watched.  Today is a game Oman really NEED to win if they want to make a serious challenge for a place in the 2027 ODI World Cup by qualifying as a top CWC Top four side.  Nepal are presently in seventh place hoping to leapfrog Canada with a win but Oman in fourth position need to capitalise on the fact that they still have 4 games to play while those around them have completed their 36 games - especially Namibia.  Nepal win the toss and will bat first on a wicket where all the games have been won by the team batting first  

CWC Tri-Tournament - Oman v Nepal @ Al Amerat Oman Monday 19 October 2026

Nepal win the toss and choose to bat first on a wicket where the teams batting first have had a distinct advantage and usually the winning points.  The Oman side sees Shah Faisal returning to the side to open the bowling while Nepal will open the batting with Dev Khanal coming in for the injured Arjun Kumal

The Oman side sees a number of returnees;

Jatinder Singh, Hasnain Ul Wahab, Hammad Mirza, Mijubir Ali, Vinyat Shukla (c & w), Sanju Sanjeev, Jay Odedra, Shah Faisal, Hassnain Shah, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava 

Dev Khanal and Aasif Sheikh open the last game with the bat against Shah Faisal taking the first new ball from the Academy end of the Al Amerate ground.A brace a two run spurts sees the new Nepal bat off the mark with 5 fro the first over.  As usual, Oman turn to spin at home immediately as Shakeel Ahmed opens his morning account from the supporters stand end of the ground.  Sheikh also gets off the mark with a single and the batting side move to 8 after 2.

The first boundary comes in the third over as Khanal sends Faisal  to the boundary for the first time but the early moments suggest the Nepalese are confident against an experienced Omani new ball attack that willnot be afraid to try a few things.

The first breakthrough comes at the end of the 5th over when Aasif Sheik almost apologetically clips Faisal to the mid wicket fielder Ul Wahab who gratefully accepts the catch to send the bat on his way for 7 from 13 at 19 for 1.  it almost comes a a surprise because there didn't seem to be anything particular about the ball - there certainly wasn't anything stunning about the shot!  Ishan Pandey replaces his unfortunate colleague.

As we move towards the end of the 'Powerplay', Jay Odedra takes the 9th replacing Faisal and Pandey finally gets off the mark in that over.  The score reaches 24 for 1 after an Ahmed maiden finishes the 'Powerplay' phase of the innings and the fielding plan changes.

The batting pair start to move forward as a scoring partnership as we reach the 15th over.  Hassnain Shah has replaced Ahmed after 6 overs and he is now in tandem with Odedra who is bowling a very frugal spell.  He finishes the 15th (his fourth) and doubles the runs he has conceded with 7 in the over, the last ball producing a caught and bowled attempt that just spins off the bowler's fingers.  41 for 1 after 15 with Khanal providing the majority of the early runs as he moved into the 30's.

The Nepal 50 arrives in the second half of the 16th from a Khanal single that takes him to 33 from 45 while his partner has moved into double figures with 10 from 35 balls faced. Hassnain Shah is also working on a tight line which means the boundaries are hard to find from both ends against this attack.

After 20 overs, the batting pair have moved past a 50 partnership and taken the score to 71 for 1.  Pandey is starting to contribute to the scoring rate, catching up with Khanal who has become a little 'becalmed' in the 30's.  He does change that a little with the first six of the innings off Shah at the start of the 21st over.

Oman have brought in Shrivasava for this game.  They start to use him in the early overs of the 20's and he breaks the 2nd wicket partnership in the 22nd over as he fools Pandey, getting the ball past him as he comes forward and Shukla does the rest as he can't get back.  He is stumped at 83 for 2 for 29 from 60 balls.  The next man in is Rohit Paudel.  Dev Khanal goes to 50 from 60 balls in the next over at 88 for 2 with 3 fours and a six in the knock.

Mujabir Ali takes the game to the 25th over (on earlier than usual) with his first outing of the day and Nepal reach the halfway point at 99 for 2.  They don't reach the 3 figure amrk with the present partnership as Shrivastava repeats his feat of fooling the bat when Khanal comes up the wicket to drive the first ball of the 26th handsomely only to find the ball is not there, it is in the hands of the keeper and he is stumped for 57 from 65 balls at 99 for 3.

Dipendra Singh Airee arrives at the crease and his first run on the board sends his side to 100 for 3.  In the 30th over he produces the second Nepalese six off Shrivastrava  pushing the score to 124 for 3 which suggests the 250 is on from the visitors, a score the Omani's have struggled to get anywhere near batting second on this wicket in the last fortnight.

Bowling wise, Shah is not having a good day having given away 29 runs from his 4 overs, Shavastrava has not been all that tight but he has two wickets from his 7 for 35. The other bowlers have been much tighter though Ali has yet to have enough over to make that assessment (1 for 7).  Nepal will be looking to push forwatrd now with two bats with a reputation for pushing the score along and Gulsan Jha in the dressing room ready to take over if one this pair should fail.  Oman will need to chase better today than they have been able to do so far if they want the points from this one.

Airee provides another six as he takes a liking to Ali and moves his side near to 150 at the end of the 33rd over.  The 150 does arrive with a Paudel single in the 34th oer off the bowling of Shah while Ahmed returns for the 35th to look to hold the Nepalese in check having onlyu gone for 19 runs from the 8 overs bowled sofar.  He will bowl out in the next few while hopefully putting the brakes on the scoring at the same time.

With 15 to go, Nepal are 156 for 3 with Airee looking dangerous scoring at more than a run a ball.  Ahmed bowled out for 29 runsand with the 38th over Oman look to bowl out Shrivatava with the extra hope that he will removeoneof the two present Nepal bats in the process as they take on the tricky spinner.  He finishes his8th over at 2 for 40 with the visitors on 177 fro 3 with 11 overs remaining in this half of the contest.  Odedra also returns to finish his bowling work taking the 40th (his 8th at 0 for 28) Singh Airee goes to 50 with a six from his second ball to reach 52 from 46 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes.  He is looking dangerous as Nepal reach 187 for 3 with 10 overs of the innings remaining.  They collapsed alittel against Canada 2 days ago but if they keep this up they may well bat Oman outof this game before they start their reply!!.

Paudel also reaches 50 in the 42nd with a single off Shah and his 61st ball. He has only 1 boundary in that, a six so it has been a real supportive innings so far. it comes just after he sends the ball away for two to bring up his side's 200, two runs that nearly ended with a run out.  Had the throw in been better it would have seen Paudel returning to the dressing room but it was wayward and took Shuklah too far away from the wicket to make the break in the stumps.  His throw missed and the bats got home.

With 5 overs leftit is 238 for 3 with Airee in full flow and Oman bring back Faisal for his 'death' bowling last few overs (he has only bowled 5 while Shah has leaked runs and been preferred is a small seam attack.  He gets Airee to flash at one and Shukla takes a regulation caught behind to send the Nepal talisman back to the hutch for 69 from 62 (3 fours and 4 sixes) with the first ball of the 46th.  That brings Gulshan Jha to the crease and the new pair take 10 off the rest of the over with a boundary each in that score.  They move within sniffing distance of 250 with 4 overs to go. 

Odedra takes the 47th.  Jha takes him on and dies in the deep as he does not get enough of the big hit and is caught by Sajeev for 5 from 4 without getting his side over 250.   249 for 5 brings in the big hitting KC who takes a single to get the 250 on the board.

In the 48th, KC is so keen to get somebat on Faisal's deliveries thah he swings to flamboyantly and hits his own wicket. He leavs for 9 off 4 at 261 for 6 and is replaced by Basir Ahamad.  Paudel gets back on strikein the 49th and wants to push the score along but he gets a Faisal ball too highon his bat and it goes up rather than going out.  He is caught in the deep by Shah off the bowling of Odedra for a superb 80 from 81 balls (2 sixes and 2 fours) with the score on 265 for 7.  His partnership withAiree has probably won this game for the visitors.  The skipper Sandeep Lamichhane is the next man in and after a top edge to Mirza off his first ball he is the next man out for 0 at the same score!!  Odedra finishes his 10 oves with a solid 3 for 44.  However, there is still cricket to be played and Nandan Yadav walks out to play it!!

But it is Ahamad who goes mad!!  He hits 17 off 7 balls with 14 of those coming from the first 3 ballsof the last over before he is caught going for another boundary by the sub fielder Karan Sonavale at 279 for 8.  Rajbanshi comes out as the last man and the last pair add 1 before Yadav is out to the first ball he faces shovelling the ball to Sonavale and giving Faisal a well deserved 5-fer with 5 for 57 from his 8 overs.  Nepal are all out for 280 and you have to think that 281 is well beyond what Oman can produce against this Nepalese side.

The Reply

Yadav shows Ul Wahab and Singh how diffiuclt it will be with his first over which goes for 4 runs.  Karan KC confirms it with his second after which both Omani openers have played and missed and the score has moved on to 6 without loss.   Presently the RRR is less than 6 but it will rise quickly as the overs go by unless the bats get into a rhythm by scoring consistently and regularly.  Hitting the occasional boundary makes thescore seem to be moving but the momentum is not smooth and the ability to accelerate later in the innings is never reall there because bats never really get into the flow of accumulating runs.

After 4 overs they have doubled their score but that means they have 12 which is half of where they need the score to be to be up with the rate.  It is not that much of a problem presently.  It becomes a problem IF Oman pass 10 overs with a score of less than 40-ish.

15 after 5 is a rate of 3 per over. They'll struggle to get much past 150 at that rate.  So when are the openers going to decide they have eatabllished a base and they must start to progress it.  Their initial target must surely be at over 5 an over by the 10th and into 3 figures before the 20th.  They need to be banging on the vicinity of 140 by the halfway point and most definitely there by this side of 30 overs.  It seems like an easy plan but the Omani's have rarely shown the ability to get into that plan and they are weak fro batter number 6 on so the front end of the order needs to do a lot of the leg work for this.

The issue is that although they still have 4 more games after this one in a tournament with UAE and The Netherlands, they will find that IF they get the necessary points to get them to the Namibia qualifying event in Fenbruary/March 2027, the sides they come up against there will be regularlyposting scores in the 280 to 320 sort of range.  Even if they get there,can they live with these sides over 50 overs?  Presently the jury is out on that level of ability in the present squad.

After 7 overs, both Omani bats are still in single figures. Nepal introduce spin with Rajbanshi in the 9th.  The requirement does seem tobe getting through and the openers do start to push the ball into the bagps and get the score moving but at the end of the 9th with the score on 32, Ul Wahab looks to sweep Rajbanshi to the practice pitch side of the ground and  all he does is finds Ishan Pandey.  He becomes the first Nepal victim for 15 from 25 at 32 for 0 ending the 9th over.

Hamad Mirza comes out, hopefully with orders to get this total moving.  After 10 overs, they have moved the score to 39 so it is sort of getting into the ball park.  In this situation however, the aimhas tobe tomake sure that each 10 over section adds more than the last in order to stay in touch.  With 240 balls left, Oman have to find 242 runs to pass Nepal.  They presently have 9 wickets but each partnership has to make significant inroads into that score and the front end one's need to do more heavy lifting to take the pressure off the less 'fulltime' bats that come towards the end.

Gulshan Jha takes the 12th as the Omani 50 appearson the horizon  Mirza has already moved into double figures much quicker than either of the openers   Neverthless, the 50 does not arrive in the 12th but from the first ball of Rajbanshi's 13th with a legside glance from Singh   Later in the over there is hope as Jatinder reverse slog sweeps the Nepal bowler for a six to the scoreboard.  That moves him on to 20 and they have 60 by the end of the 13th.

Lamichhane is on for the 15th and Oman have moved to 70 for the loss of 1 by the end of it.  Jatinder Singh has 37 from 52 and must now provide the anchor role while the more urgent bats like Mirza (16 from 13) push the score on at a faster and faster rate. 

Singh Airee is introduced for the 18th after Lamichhane goes for only 1 in the 17th so the Nepal 'press' is most definitely in place and the omani pair have to find a way through it as they move into the 70s looking to get the score up towards 3 figures as the overs move into the 20s.  They have it to 80 by the end of the 18th so they are still in the ball park but just inside the door rather than in the middle of the field of play.

At that score Mirza glances one to the slip that Nepalk have put in place.  It doesn't carry but the edges are there for fielders if the bowler gets the line right.  The Nepal skipper is bowling very tightly and has gone for less than 10 from his first 3.  Runs are not easy to come by.  Howeverr, thepair have produced a 52 run partneship from 60 balls at 84 for 1 with 24 from Mirza and 28 from Singh.

We are also seeing more urgent running between the wickets from the pair as they move the score into the 90s and reach 92 by the 20th over.  From the second ball of the 21st, Singh goes to his 50 from 69 balls with 3 fours and a six.   They need MORE from Jatinder if they are to win this one.

Lamichhane seems to have Mirza in front in the 21st, the Nepalese are all celebrating but the umpire believes it was too high and does not give the decision.  The second wicket pair continue at 94 for 1.  A Mirza single at the end of Singh's 22nd brings up the 100 with Singh J on 52 and Mirza on 31.  They've moved to 'Nelson' (111) at the end of the 24th.

Latit Rajbanshi is back to take the game to the halfway point in the second innings.  A much tighter over goes for 2 and at the halfway point Oman have 113 for 1.  This is good from the point that it is in 3 figures and there are 0 wickets still available but they RRR is now 6.7 as they fall behind the regular scoring rate.  They still need 170 from 150 balls now.  The scoreboard pressure will only rise from now unless they get the score  moving.

Yadav is back for the 28th and Hamad Mirza reaches 50 from 53 (3 fours and a six) at 133 for 1 in the 30th from the Nepal bowler's 6th.  At the end of that over they are still 'in the ball park' with 138 meaning they need to double the score and a bit more from the 20 overs left.  They need 143 to win this game and so the next target is to need less than 10 and over from the 10 left at 40.  This always seems to be simple to those who watch only T20 but bowlers in 50 over games are far more into their spells and there are fewer loose balls, they tend to come as the attack tires in the last 20% of the game.  Nepal will look to press and make it hard to get the ball over the rope.  Bats need to be flexible in order to counter that but that means they alsoneed to take more risks.  oman have 9 wickets in hand so that risk is worth considering.

The Omani 150 arrives from a RajBanshi ball that Jatinder reverse sweeps and top edges over the infield for 4 to the Academy buildings. By the 35thover the score has moved to 169 for 1 for 1 and the partnership has moved to 137 runs.  At 181 the RRR drops below 100.  Presently with 14 overs to go it has dropped to 107 but 2 balls into the 37th Mirza puts the ball into the Academy building to move that down to 101 by removing six runs.

Then we get into the 'nitty gritty of a 50 over game.  Woth the last ballof the 38th, RajBanshi bowls a full toss to Jatinder Singh on 89.  He gets nearly all of it but fires it straight to the the fielder, Dipendra Singh Airee, who holds on to it and sends the opener back after 114 balls  with 7 fiours and a six.  One end is now open for the Nepalese and the Omani's need to rebuild at 190 for 2, 91 runs from victory with 12 overds to get them.

The game balance changes as Mujibur Ali walks out into the middle and with his 5 and Mirza's 85 the home side reach 200 for 2 at the end of the 40th.  81 runs needed from 60 balls is the target with Mirza being the important bat and Ali in a rotating and supportive role until it gets to the last 5 overs.  KC is back and Lamichhane has yet to return to finish his spell.  Every bowler has 3 overs left so there are a number of ways the Nepalese captain can go.  It's a game of nerves and gambles now.

Lamichhane is back for the 41st and he changes the balance again as he gets Mirza to feather one to Sheikh standing up and the Omani bat has to go for 878 from 96 at 204 for 3. Both the men who got the home side here are gone now and the question is now, who in the Omani side can take this one home?  The Omani captain Viyak Shukla comes out to take up the challenge but he will have to start with another partner as Airee gets Ali LBW for 8 from 12 in the 42nd at 206 for 4.  His next partner is Sanju Sajeev as the equation becomes 73 runs in 8 overs (48 balls) or 6 wickets.

Yadav takes the 43rd (his 8th) he has gone for 26 from his first 7.  They take 11 off the over including 2 wides and move to 219 for 4 as dusk come down and the lights go on.  Lamichhane bowls his 9th amd continues to be tight going for only 3.  There is a little concern as Shukla seems to be struggling a bit, expecially with running.  He's telling people to carry on but he doesn't look at all comfortable.  222 for 4 with 6 to go. Airee bowling the 45th. Shukla goes big but edges the ball slightly and that is enough for the boundary cover to get to the ball and take the catch.  The sweeper is Pandey and the Omani skipper goes for 13 from 15 at 224 for 5.

Hassnain Shah joins Ali in the middle and he takes a six from an Airee full toss at the end of the over to move the score to 230 and the requirement to 51 from 5.  Rajbanshi bowls his 8th with the 46th and the RRR rises with every dot ball and decreases with every boundary.  Sajeev looks to go down the ground but finds himself a little cramped up so the shot does not have the legs.  Rohit Paudel see the opportunity and comes running in to take a diving catch and the score is 232 for 6 with Sujeev on his way for 5 from 3 and Shah Faisal at the crease with an increasingly difficult task ahed of him.  It seems that the umpires have decided the catch was not taken cleanly but Paudel has his wits about him and speared the ball in with Sujeev well out of his crease so he was run out instead.  Either way it's another step nearer victiry for the visitors.

Oman need 49 from 24 at the end of the over and will now Nepaface Yadav bowling the 47th.  Nepalese boundary fielding is as excellent as ever at the start of the over when a certain four is saved by Lalit Rajbanshi just inside the boundary.  It's 244 for 6 with 18 balls to go.  

It's 249 with 12 to go and it may be gone!!  Lamichhane bowled out with 1 for 37 from his 10.  Yadav will take the 48th as his last with Shah on20 from 14 and Faisal on 3 from 3.  They need 32!!  Shah starts with six of them bouncing off the nepal dressing room window!!  Yadav comes back with 3 singles and a dot before Faisal gets hold of his last one.  It looks high wide and handsome but it drops into the hands of Paudel and the bowler has to go for 4 from 6 balls and out comes Shakeel Ahmed for the last over. Yadav finishes with1 for 55 from his 10.  The score is 258 for 7 with Shah the hope of the home side on 28.

Shah is on strike and Airee has the ball for his last over.The first takes a leading edge for 2.  Oman need 21 from 5.  The second is a straight driven four.  Oman need 17 from 4.  A bottom edge squirt to the boundary is the next shot and Oman need 13 from 3.  They take a very quick two from the 4th to move to 270 and Oman need 11 from 2.  A dot ball means that unless there is a no ball this chase is over. Shah does not take the tun because he's pretty sure Amed would not get the six and so he faces the last ball.

On 40 from 21 the bat comes up the wicket but can't produce more than the single.  He doesn't take it he simply sinks to his knees and gets commiserations from the Nepal fielders around him.  Dipendra Singh Airee high fives his team mates at the other end as Oman come up 10 runs short and he finishes with figures of 2 for 60 from his 10.  Nepal will complete their campaign in 6th place with no one below able to catch them and I think that gives them ODI status in the future.  Oman only took 2 points from the 8 on offer and are therefore equal with Namibia on 33 and still 5 points behind the Netherlands who they face in the last Tournament.  Rather than going into that on a par with the Dutch they have come up short and are still quite a way from the third qualifying spot held by their rivals at the moment.

Despite the fact that they have shown they can chase, I'd put my money on the Netherlands.  There is a question here whether the order after Mirza fell was the right one for the situation.  Maybe Shah should have come in earlier but it is what it is and the lessons will need to be learned I'm afraid.

Excellent tournament.  I still haven't seen an Omani win against Nepal and the standings are about where they ought to be I think. 

Oman came into this section of their 36 qualifying games with 8 games left.  They had 31 points in 5th place with Namibia in 4th with 33.  The Netherlands were in the third qualifying place with 4 games left and 38 points so it was a great opportunity for Oman, at home, to geet close to the Dutch and pass the Namibians.  Unfortunately they only won one of the games at Muscat which puts them equal with Namibia with 4 games to go while the Africans have finished 

Oman should beat  the UAE when they meet but unfortunately so should the Dutch and because of the losses here, two wins agains them will NOT be enough even if Oman take the maximum 8  points from the next Tri series.  They need the Emiratees to take two points from the Dutch as well.  Such a long road of 36 ODI's to come up 1 point short but they had it in their own hands at home to get there and they failed. 

However, that would not be the end!!  The TOP FOUR (not THREE as I thought) qualify as of right and the rest of League 2 then go to Katmandu in December to have another go in another 8 team qualifying event with the lower level qualifiers in other events like Uganda and Italy.   Itjust never ends!!   because when that one ends the 'qualifiers'  all go to a 10 team final decider event in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa in Feb March next year!!  Ahh well tomorrow is another day.

Man of the Match  - DIPENDRA SINGH AIREE