Samson, Abhishek lift India to 188

Innings India 188 for 8 (Samson 56, Abhishek 38, Faisal 2-23) vs Oman

Abhishek Sharma's speedy 38 in the powerplay, in which India scored 60, and Sanju Samson's stop-start fifty took India to 188 for 8 against Oman in the last league fixture of the Asia Cup after they had decided to bat in Abu Dhabi.

With this being a dead rubber, India experimented with their combination ahead of the Super Four, resting their bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and newly minted No.1 T20I bowler Varun Chakravarthy. India also fiddled with their batting line-up, with their captain Suryakumar Yadav not batting at all despite India losing eight wickets. The returning Harshit Rana managed an unbeaten 13 off eight balls from No. 8. He closed out the innings with a scythed six over point.

It was Abhishek who made the early running for India, clattering five fours and two sixes during his 38 off 15 balls. He got a reprieve on 21 when he tickled Mohammad Nadeem down the leg side, but Vinayak Shukla, the Oman keeper, shelled the catch and umpire Raveendra Wilalasiri eventually deemed it as a wide ball.

Abhishek added 17 to his tally before nicking another one behind, Shukla making no mistake this time. Samson had a slow start - he was on 13 off 14 balls at one point - but a six and a four off Madhya-Pradesh-born wristspinner Samay Shrivatsava got him out of first gear. Samson proceeded to crash Zikria Islam for a straight six in the tenth over, but slowed down once again thereafter.

Then, after bringing up his half-century off 41 balls, Samson holed out in the 18th over. India cobbled together 21 off the last three overs and managed to find the boundary just once during this period.

Faisal Shah, Jiten Ramanandi and Aamir Kaleem shared six wickets among them for Oman.