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Oman, Jersey win to clinch promotion to WCL Division Four
- Updated: May 27, 2016
Aamir Kaleem’s stellar tournament with bat and ball continued as he claimed his second straight Man of the Match award in Oman’s two-wicket win over Guernsey at St Clement. Kaleem put his stamp on the match today in all three disciplines: running out opener Tom Kimber with a direct hit from point, taking 2 for 12 in ten overs including the prized wicket of Matthew Stokes, and top-scoring with 35 to lift up Oman after entering at 13 for 4 in the fifth over.
With net run rate tiebreaker at play in the WCL, Oman crucially won the toss and inserted Guernsey. It meant Guernsey entered the day needing to not only win but do so by at least 100 runs in order to pass Oman on net run rate, having entered the day +1.188 behind them.
They would also have to do it without captain Jamie Nussbaumer, who missed the game with a leg injury. It caused a reshuffle to the batting order with Stokes dropping down to take Nussbaumer’s spot at No. 4 while Kimber, who replaced Nussbaumer in the XI, opened instead of the team’s leading scorer Stokes.
Despite the urgency of the day with promotion up to Division Four at stake, Guernsey employed a cautious approach from ball one and eventually finished on 141 for 8. They only scored from 11 deliveries in the first 60 balls bowled by Oman over the course of the opening Powerplay to reach 23 for 1. GH Smit was the batsman to fall in that stretch, spooning Rajeshkumar Ranpura to mid-on for 13.
Even after the new-ball spells of Ranpura and Munis Ansari were negotiated, Guernsey’s top order could not get out of a rut against the first-change tandem of seamer Sufyan Mehmood and the left-arm spin of Kaleem. From the 14th through the 16th overs, Kimber and Oliver Newey played out 17 straight dots. Newey’s own streak of 14 straight dots was broken with a bit of luck, as an edge off Mehmood split the keeper and slip to go for four.
However, Newey’s vigil ended two overs later as this time another edge off Mehmood was safely pouched by Swapnil Khadye behind the stumps for 11. Three balls later, Kimber ran himself out pushing for a risky single as Kaleem swooped in and fired a direct hit that connected with Kimber well short at the non-striker’s end. Kaleem then struck again in back-to-back overs to nab Stokes first and then …
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