By Sports Reporter — KAMPALA: May 29 - Naseem Kushi’s blistering lower-order flourish and a top bowling performance from Khawar Ali and Munis Ansari helped Oman crush Malaysia in the World Cricket League Division III and enter Division II on Monday. Malaysia won the toss and elected to field. Oman had a bad start after losing Khawar for a duck but Jatinder Singh played a fine knock of 44 and Aqib Ilyas was back in the element scoring 66.
After suffering a middle-order wobble, skipper Sultan Ahmed and Naseem got the team back on track. Sultan struck a well-made half-century while Naseem went bonkers in the last five overs, slamming four sixes in the last over, to end up with 77 runs off 30 balls. Oman set a massive target of 294 for Malaysia. Chasing 294, Malaysia struggled all the way despite scoring at a consistent rate. Khawar scalped 5/23 while Munis picked up four wickets for 46 runs as they rattled the Malaysian batting line-up. It was all over in the 34th over as Malaysia folded up for 162 to give Oman a huge 131-run victory and a much-deserved place in WCL Division II.
SCOREBOARD
Oman
K Ali lbw Liyanage 0
J Singh (run out) 44
A Ilyas b K Hayat 61
Z Maqsood lbw K Hayat 8
A Lalcheta st S Sharif b M Shukri 24
S Ahmed c A Faiz b Liyanage 51
M Nadeem c V Singh b M Wafiq 14
N Khushi (not out) 77
N Dhamba (not out) 0
Extras (B-5, LB-1, W-5, NB-3) 14
Total (For 7 wkts, 50 overs) 293
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-98, 3-113, 4-124, 5-161, 6-199, 7-269.
Bowling: N Liyanage 6-0-57-2, M Wafiq 9-0-75-1, K Hayat 10-0-23-2, P Singh 7-0-55-0, M Shukri 10-1-40-1, V Singh 8-0-37-0.
Malaysia
A Arudin c S Ahmed b Ansari 57
S Aziz c A Ilyas b Ansari 1
A Faiz c N Khushi b Ansari 4
V Singh c Ansari b B Khan 20
S Sharif c M Nadeem b K Ali 33
A Ramly b Ansari 1
K Hayat st S Ahmed b K Ali 28
N Liyanage c Lalcheta b K Ali 10
M Shukri c A Ilyas b K Ali 0
P Singh (not out) 0
M Wafiq c Dhamba b K Ali 0
Extras (LB-4, W-3, NB-1) 8
Total (all out, 33.1 overs) 162
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-14, 3-63, 4-94, 5-99, 6-130, 7-151, 8-153, 9-162.
Bowling: B Khan 5-1-28-1, M Ansari 8-1-46-4, A Ilyas 2-0-25-0, M Nadeem 4-0-15-0, K Ali 8.1-1-23-5, A Lalcheta 1-0-7-0, Z Maqsood 5-1-14-0.
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