Oman have won the toss and elected to field against Papua New Guinea in the opening match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
The opening match is being played at Al Amerat Cricket Stadium, Muscat on Sunday.
Oman’s players have been preparing for the T20 World Cup while working part-time jobs. This will be the host nation’s second-ever mega tournament. Meanwhile, PNG who are going to play their first-ever World Cup, want to use the tournament as a platform to make fans in their country happy amidst a rough period following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oman are the last team to qualify for the World Cup after beating Hong Kong by 12 runs. They also have a 2-1 win over the Mumbai, the domestic greats of India and also gave their best in the 50-over format of the game, but unfortunately lost the series 2-1. They also fought well against Sri Lanka in two T20Is.
PNG have also been trying their best to perform well in the T20 World Cup. Since their arrival to Oman in early September, the team has played four ODIs against USA and Nepal and also played four World Cricket League Division 2 matches against Scotland and Oman.
In their warm-up matches, PNG tried their best but were outperformed by Sri Lanka and Ireland.
PNG skipper Assad Vala says, “We believe in ourselves. We want to play to the best of our abilities. We want to express ourselves. We want to make it to the second round to test ourselves against the best teams in cricket. We don’t want this World Cup to be a one-off.”
The match is going to be a good encounter as both teams are confident and want to perform well and prove themselves on the grand stage of the T20 World Cup.
Playing XI [Probable]
Oman: Jatinder Singh, Aqib Ilyas, Kashyap Prajapati, Mohammad Nadeem, Zeeshan Maqsood (c), Suraj Kumar (wk), Sandeep Goud, Naseem Khushi, Kaleemullah, Fayyaz Butt, Bilal Khan.
Papa New Guinea: Tony Ura, Assad Vala (c), Charles Amini, Kiplin Doriga (wk), Sese Bau, Norman Vanua, Jason Kila, Simon Atai, Nosaina Pokana, Chad Soper, Damien Ravu.