Muscat – Hosts Oman defeated Bahrain by 86 runs to emerge as Group A topper in the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup Division -2 Asia Qualifier at the Oman Cricket Academy (OCA) grounds on Monday.

Oman will take on Group B runners-up on Thursday.

Group B winners, (the winners of Singapore vs Hong Kong ties on Tuesday) will take on Bahrain in the other semi-final.

It was a fine performance on the field by hosts Oman on Monday, despite the team failing to capitalise on the strong start as they were bowled out for 178 in 48.5 overs.

Openers Lakshmi Satish and Devansh Loya gelled well for the first time in the tournament as they shared a 61-run stand after Oman skipper Arjun Dhiman won the toss and elected to bat first at OCA 2 ground. Loya was first to depart for 29 and Satish (31) was next as Oman reached 84/2 in 25.3 overs. However, a double-strike by Bahrain’s Nadith Tennakoon put the hosts on the back foot in the 26th over as he prized the wicket of in-form Dhiman off the last ball of the over.

Aryan Bisht, who had made 60 in the opening group game against Bhutan, played another solid knock as he remained unbeaten on 48 off 55 balls. But Bisht found little support at the other end as Oman was restricted to 178.

Tennakoon and Muhammad Adil Khan were the most successful bowlers with four wickets each.

Bahrain had a disappointing start as medium pacer Mohammed Arafat Islam struck a double blow, dismissing skipper Aryan Ashwin and Ananth Krishnan Natesan off successive deliveries. Both the batters were snared behind by Rahil Habibulla, who had a good day behind as he later had one stumping to his name.

The early setback pushed Bahrain into a shell and the middle order caved in as they were left tottering at 28/5 in the 15th over. Muhammad Adil Khan and Aryan Pande tried to fight back with a sixth-wicket stand of 34 but once Adil Khan departed, bowled by Satish for 22, the writing was on the wall and Bahrain was bowled out for 92 in 34.3 overs.

Bisht followed his batting heroics with a tidy spell of 2/14 to be adjudged the man of the match.

Dhiman, Arafat Islam also had two wickets each while Glen Alexei Menezes and Satish took one each.

“I think we were always in the game. We had a decent start although we lost wickets in the middle. We couldn’t convert it to something big but I’m happy the way I contributed in terms of holding the ship and I am enjoying the role of batting under pressure,” said Bisht.

“We always believed in our bowling attack. They have the ability to bowl out the rival team. They executed the same today. Overall, it was a collective effort. We look forward to the semi-finals and are happy going in with our momentum.”

In the other game of the day at the OCA 1 ground, Muhammed Ahmed Raza came up with a dream spell of 7/20 to lead Saudi Arabia to a five-wicket win over Bhutan for a consolation win.

It was Saudi Arabia’s first win in the tournament. Bhutan and Saudi Arabia were already out of the reckoning for a place in the knockout stage.