North Sound, Antigua and Barbuda – It is a showdown of pride and pressure as Oman brace themselves to face defending champions England in their final Group B encounter of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Thursday.

The match begins at 3 pm local time (11 pm Oman time).

Having displayed resilience in their previous matches, despite being winless in the tournament so far, Oman seek to bid farewell with a memorable performance against England.

Over the past two weeks, Oman have shown remarkable character, especially in their close encounters against Namibia and Australia in Barbados before crashing to a big defeat at the hands of Scotland in Antigua.

England go up against Oman knowing that only a win will do if they wish to have any chance of progressing from Group B. Jos Buttler’s side realistically need to produce a dominant performance to catch-up with Scotland’s superior net-run-rate (NRR).

Australia are top of the group with six points from three matches after their thumping win over Namibia on Tuesday night in Antigua. The nine-wicket win powered the Aussies into the knockout phase, the second team in the tournament, to confirm their berth in Super Eight stage. South Africa had earlier booked their spot from Group D with three wins and a washout between Nepal and Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

Scotland are close behind with five points and Namibia are third with two points from three and England have just one point from their two matches.

At the start of the tournament, holders England and Australia were expected to stroll through the group that had three Associate nations in Oman, Scotland and Namibia. However, England face the genuine prospect of an early exit, after their opener against Scotland was washed out and handing the teams a point each.

England suffered a big defeat at the hands of Australia and now face the prospect of being knocked out if they are unable to garner a huge net run-rate (NRR) in their must-win games against Oman and then Namibia.

For Oman, they would gain strength from their display in the first two games, having narrowly lost to Namibia in the Super Over and then strangling Australia batters for the first 14 overs, before losing the plot against their vastly superior and experienced rivals.

Oman meet England for the first time in a T20I clash, but they have their decent performance against another Test-playing and former world champions Australia at Kensington Oval last week to take a cue from.

Duleep Mendis-coached side will hope to exploit the advantage of assessing the playing conditions earlier than England at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium after their seven-wicket defeat to Scotland on June 9.

“The team failed to capitalise on the favourable batting conditions and the batters did not use the strong winds to their benefit,” lamented Oman skipper Aqib Ilyas, highlighting the missed opportunities against Scotland.

Oman would hope to make amends to their mistakes against the Scots with their resilience spirit in focus against a rival that faces a do-or-die game.

Oman batter Pratik Athavale, who top-scored against the Scotland with 54, the highest score by an Omani in the tournament so far, said: “We will take positives from the defeat against Scotland here [in Antigua] and also have learnt our lessons during our losses against Namibia [Super Over] and Australia respectively.”

Opener Athavale emphasised the need of early breakthroughs in powerplay and building partnerships while batting. He said: “We were unable to make the best use of the conditions against Scotland. We will go into Thursday’s match with positive intent and do our best.”

Overall, Oman can be satisfied with the account that they have given in this tournament and will go into England game with “nothing to lose” attitude and would be eager to demonstrate their skills and bow out with their heads high.