Lorcan Tucker's 94* powers Ireland's massive win

Lorcan Tucker's blazing, unbeaten 94 led the way for Ireland's thumping 96-run win over Oman, their first of the ongoing T20 World Cup, ensuring they are mathematically in contention for a place in the next round in the tightly-contested Group B.

All sorts of records tumbled as Ireland piled on 235 for 5 after being put in to bat. It was the highest total for Ireland in T20Is, and the second highest by any team in T20 World Cups. Tucker's 94* was also the highest score by an Irish batter in a T20 World Cup game.

Only for a brief while, when Aamir Kaleem and Hammad Mirza had taken the attack to the Ireland bowlers in the powerplay did it seem Oman were in the fight in a contest where the proceedings were dominated throughout by Ireland. Oman had hammered 63 runs in six overs - the highest in this World Cup so far - despite losing two wickets to Ashish Odedara in the third over.

However, even as the duo stitched a 73-run stand for the third wicket, Oman struggled to maintain the tempo of scoring once the field restrictions were taken away. Once Kaleem departed top-edging a pull in the 11th over, their chase came crumbling down. Ireland struck six times over the next five overs as Oman collapsed to 121 for 9 before the end of the 16th over, with Josh Little scalping three wickets.

The comprehensive margin of victory aside, they continued to be shoddy on the field, dropping three catches and taking their tournament total up to - 10, more than any other team.

Earlier in the day, Shakeel Ahmed had struck thrice within five overs to counter Ireland's aggressive start. Nonetheless, Tucker, leading in his maiden T20I in the absence of the injured Paul Stirling, lead the Irish revival in the company of Gareth Delany.

The duo remained calculative with their attack till the 16th over, giving only the off charge to bowlers. In the 11th over, Delany and Tucker tonked a six each off Nadeem Khan. Two overs later, Tucker hit two cheeky boundaries off Sufyan Mehmood, before bringing up his half-century in the next over with a boundary through square leg.

To make matters worse, the charge in the last three overs was ruthless. Mohammed Nadeem and Jiten Ramanandi bore the brunt of Tucker's late assault, being put away for 26 and 21 runs respectively. George Dockrell too joined the act, and smoked three consecutive sixes to end Ireland's innings.

With this loss, Oman's hopes of qualifying for the next round have come to a mathematical end.

Brief Scores: Ireland 235/5 in 20 overs (Lorcan Tucker 94, Gareth Delany 56; Shakeel Ahmed 3-33) beat Oman 139 in 20 overs (Aamir Kaleem 50, Hammad Mirza 46; Josh Little 3-16, Matthew Humphreys 2-27) by 96 runs