Bowlers, Marsh orchestrate consolation Australia win

It was a result that one could have foreseen from a distance. As much as Oman have shown glimpses of their potential at this T20 World Cup, Australia were always going to be a difficult proposition, despite all the backlash surrounding their shocking early exit. And the 2021 champions brought the curtains down on a disappointing campaign with a resounding nine-wicket win over Oman in Pallekele on Friday (February 20).

After the Aussies elected to bowl first, Xavier Bartlett got the ball to hoop around, cleaning up Aamir Kaleem with a ripping outswinger off the first ball of the match. It was a sign of things to come as Australia struck twice more in the PowerPlay, even as Glenn Maxwell spilled a sitter at second slip to deny Bartlett a second in the opening over. Nathan Ellis got the ball to skid off a hard length as Karan Sonavale chopped it onto his stumps, before Bartlett castled Jatinder Singh with an away-swinger that then jagged back in upon pitching.

In between these wickets, Oman's batters looked to remain positive in the PowerPlay and even closed out the phase with a six off Hammad Mirza's bat. But soon enough, Adam Zampa spun a web around the rest of the batters, getting the ball to beat Mirza before delivering the sucker blow - a quicker one that skid quickly off the pitch to bowl him on the heave. A successful review then saw the leggie trap Mohammad Nadeem on the paddle-sweep and what ensued was a free fall, despite Wasim Ali mustering some sort of a fight with his 33-ball 32.

Australia's players didn't necessarily wear huge smiles, fittingly reflective of a team that had no business crashing out of the tournament as early as they have. But there were no issues in cleaning up the Oman lineup. So much so that for all his woes, Maxwell picked up a couple of wickets which included his 50th T20I scalp. Zampa completed the clean-up act with consecutive wickets as Jay Odedra holed out to long on, before last man Shafiq Jan went for a slog-sweep, only to see his furniture disturbed.

The Mitchell Marsh-Travis Head duo then picked up from where they left off against Sri Lanka. Three boundaries in the opening over set Marsh on his way before he slammed a six in the next. Head thrashed left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed for a couple of cracking boundaries before Marsh continued to butcher the ball. The duo brought up a second fifty-run stand in as many games, ending the PowerPlay on 73/0 as Marsh reached his half-century with a delightful extended loft over mid-off.

Australia were in a hurry as the boundaries kept coming at a blistering pace. There was one moment of excitement in an otherwise dull affair - Shakeel got Head to slog-sweep the ball a mile up on the leg-side before the bowler and wicket-keeper Vinayak Shukla both went for the catch. Neither called decisively and Shukla clung on despite a juggling act, taking off on a celebratory sprint and unleashing Cristiano Ronaldo's 'Siuuu' celebration. But it was all but the minutest deviation before the inevitable outcome of a whopping Australian win, with Josh Inglis sealing the deal with a boundary.

Australia got the job done with a whopping 62 deliveries to spare, catapulting their net run-rate above that of table-toppers Zimbabwe too. It counted for little, however, as they head home before the Super Eights.

Brief Scores: Oman 104 in 16.2 overs (Wasim Ali 32, Adam Zampa 4-21, Glenn Maxwell 2-13, Xavier Bartlett 2-27) lost to Australia 108/1 in 9.4 overs (Mitchell Marsh 64*, Travis Head 32, Shakeel Ahmed 1-29) by 9 wickets