Dubai, UAE – Oman ended their four-game tri-series against Scotland and Papua New Guinea with a comfortable 85-run victory over the latter, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

Batting first after winning the toss, Oman made 277 for 8, thanks mainly to Jatinder Singh’s fine 79 and half-centuries from Zeeshan Maqsood and Ayaan Khan.

Oman lost Kashyap Prajapati early, but a 124-run partnership between the in-form Jatinder and skipper Maqsood placed them in total command. Jatinder took centre stage and led the scoring for his side with a magnificent 77-ball 79. Zeeshan played the supporting role to perfection while making 52 runs.

A late-middle order wobble followed, but Ayaan Khan ensured that the platform set earlier was taken full advantage of. He made an unbeaten, run-a-ball 62 and with some late help from Kaleemullah, powered Oman to a competent total of 277 for 8.

Norman Vanua was the pick of the Papua New Guinea bowling unit and finished with figures of 3 for 50 in eight overs.

Papua New Guinea’s response with the bat, however, fell well short. Charles Amini held his own for the duration of a valiant 60-run knock while Norman Vanua and Tony Ura chipped in with scores of 27 and 25 respectively but despite that, they were bowled out for 192 with 5.3 overs to spare.

For Oman, Bilal Khan continued his stunning form with another five-wicket haul – his third in nine games. He finished the series with 13 wickets. Khawar Ali was the other one with more than one scalp to his name.

Bilal was ecstatic with his performance.

“I’m always happy to bowl in Dubai. Whether it is with the old or new ball, in the middle overs, or at the death, I always bowl with my heart. I enjoy it and manage to pick up some wickets too,” said Bilal, while collecting his player of the match award.

Referencing Jatinder and Bilal’s current form and his takeaways from the tri-series as a whole, Zeeshan Maqsood said: “Jatinder is a top-order batsman and when he scores, the job for the middle and lower order becomes easier. Similar case with Bilal as well. When he gets breakthroughs early on, the rest of the innings gets a little easier.

“In the tour, the pace bowlers have contributed a lot. Jatinder scored a lot of runs – a 100 and two fifties. Even in the game against Scotland, we performed brilliantly and never gave up until the end. There are just a few niggles that we need to sort out but many positives to take forward,” he added.

Oman lead the ICC Men’s CWC League 2 table by 16 points, having played 16 games more than second-placed Scotland.

BRIEF SCORES:
Oman 277 for 8 in 50 overs (Jatinder Singh 79(77) 7×4, 2×6 Ayaan Khan 62(62) 2×4, 4×6 Zeeshan Maqsood 52(108) 3×4; Norman Vanua 3 for 50) beat Papua New Guinea 192 all out in 44.3 overs (Charles Amini 60(92) 3×4; Bilal Khan 5 for 54) by 85 runs