Stoinis steadies Aussie ship with bat and ball

Australia 164-5
Oman 125-9

Australia won by 39 overs

The highly fancied Australian side secured an easy opening win over plucky Oman who were outclassed but never outfought at the Kensington Oval, Barbados.

They briefly had the Aussies mildly concerned at 60-3 off 10.4 overs, as the Southern Hemisphere side had batted 18 runs without a boundary at that point. That was the peak of Oman’s hopes.

The hitherto slow but steady David Warner then swept the fifth ball of Maqsood’s over for 4 broke that run and he repeated that feat on the offside with the sixth. The next over brought just five but the 13th over changed and ultimately sealed the match.

Marcus Stoinis plundered four 6s and a 2 off Mehran Khan and at that point, that one over accounted for just about 25% of the Aussie runs.

Stoinis merrily plundered from then on and then Warner perked up his run rate. They secured a marvellous 100 partnership to which Oman had few answers.

Warner left in the penultimate over for 56 and secured his side a good total of 164-5. Stoinis finished unbeaten on 67 off just 36 balls.

He wasn’t done yet.

Oman never really looked like toppling that total and wickets fell early on 6, 23, 29 and 34. The best partnership was 32 for the 7th wicket.

The best of the Aussie bowlers was the best of the Aussie batsman, Marcus Stoinis, who took 3-19 off 3 overs so there were prizes for guessing who was Man of the Match.

Elsewhere Uganda secured their first T20 World Cup win by beating Papua New Guinea in a low scoring game. Neither are likely to qualify.

In Australia’s group, Namibia face Scotland today. Both sides will be on a high.

Namibia won a Super Over win over Oman while Scotland dominated England in a game that was eventually washed out. Wins for either would put them in a really competitive chance of qualification.

Australia face old rivals England on Saturday and victory will be more necessary for the English with their single point from the Scotland game. Still, if Namibia win before then, their fate will still be mostly in their hands.