Oman miss out on direct qualification to T20 World Cup
Jersey's Blampied left Oman 6 for 3 in their chase and then Miles finished the job off
ESPNcricinfo staff
27-Oct-2019
Jersey 141 for 7 (Ferraby 41, Nadeem 4-23) beat Oman127 for 9 (Maqsood 56, Miles 3-22, Blampied 3-27) by 14 runs
Decisive three-wicket hauls from Dominic Blampied and Elliot Miles denied Oman their fifth win in six group games, a result that would have helped them top Group B and seal direct qualification to the T20 World Cup.
Later in the day it was confirmed that Ireland topped Group B on net run rate - the only way they wouldn't have finished No. 1 was if UAE beat Canada by a gargantuan margin, or vice versa, and that didn't happen.* Oman will now face Namibia in a qualifier, the winner of which will go through to the T20 World Cup. The loser will get another opportunity, in a second qualifier against Hong Kong.
Earlier, Papua New Guinea had become the first team to seal an automatic berth by topping Group A.
After electing to bowl, Oman had to contend with a brisk opening stand of 60 between Nick Ferraby and Nick Greenwood. But a menacing spell from Mohammad Nadeem - the medium-pacer took four wickets for a career-best haul - soon reduced Jersey to 79 for 4 and then 96 for 5. Jersey's lower-middle order strung together only 45 in the last seven overs to lift them to 141 for 7.
While Nadeem's wicket burst was damage control, Blampied did the damage early on. In the second over of the chase, he dismissed Khawar Ali, Aqib Ilyas, and Aamir Kaleem to leave Oman 6 for 3. A 76-run stand between Jatinder Singh and Zeeshan Maqsood kept Oman in the hunt, however. The partnership had left Oman needing 60 off 48 balls to top the group. But Miles would then come in the way - he dismissed both Jatinder and Maqsood, who made 56 - and accounted for wicketkeeper Suraj Kumar in the middle as well. From 82 for 3, Oman slipped to 103 for 6 in the 17th over. The remaining runs were too much for the lower order to chase down. They will now have to compete in the qualifier playoffs round to try and go through to the T20 World Cup.
*03.30GMT, October 28: This report was updated after the result of UAE v Canada