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.