Kuldeep Rawat rips through Oman as India win by ten wickets

Predictably enough, the India-Oman ACC Under-17s Asia Cup encounter at the Bangladesh Krira Shixa Protisthan Ground 1 at Savar in Dhaka on Monday turned out to be woefully one-sided with India crushing the opponents by ten wickets. The hero of the day was medium pacer Kuldeep Rawat who ripped through the Oman line up with figures of seven for 11 in his nine overs.

Opting to bat, Oman opener J Thompson (2) lost his defences to Bignesh Mohanty in the fourth over of the day. This started the dramatic sequence of events as Rawat took over the proceedings. The very next over bowled by Rawat saw the other opener and stumper Omar Arif (3) return to the pavilion, bowled by Rawat. In his next over, Rawat had the skipper of the Oman side Adnas Ilyas bowled for nought. Three balls later Rustam Ali Khan (1) departed in much the same manner, bowled by Rawat. New batsman K Hashmi (0) lasted just two balls. Off the last ball of the seventh over, Hashmi was bowled by Rawat.

Five balls later, Bignesh Mohanty bowled G Thakkar (0) for his second wicket. At the end of the eighth over, Oman were tottering at 12 for six. Rawat claimed his next wicket in the eleventh over of the innings. Abbas Murtaga (2) was bowled by Rawat with the score at 25. In his next over Rawat sent back Shameel Kazmi (15), the only batsman to reach double figures. Shameel was caught by Parthiv Patel off Rawat. It was only a matter of time before the innings folded up and Rawat came back in the 17th over to pack off Riyami Mohammad (6) who was caught by Rakesh Mohanty. Shikhar Dhawan then picked the last wicket, that off G Udeshi (3), terminating the Oman innings at 46 off 18.4 overs.

India hit off the required runs in just 5.4 overs. Openers S Dhawan (18) and skipper Parthiv Patel (25) thrashed the Oman bowling to shreds to guide India, who were playing their first match to a facile victory.