• Oh man … Munsey maxes Oman in series decider

    Scotland’s George Munsey came within a whisper of racking up his maiden List A ton as his side held off a late charge from Oman in the deciding match of their three-match series at Al Amarat.

    Munsey came to the wicket at the start of the 38th over with Scotland’s score on 153-3, and the Oxford-born left-hander proceeded to maul the Oman bowlers, slamming 96 runs off 43 balls with seven fours and nine sixes.

    His highest List A score came at a strike rate of 223.25, which was more than three times his career strike rate in the format.

    READ ALSO: Oh man, what a disaster!

    Munsey was caught with the score on 294-4 with eight balls of the innings left. Scotland finished on 303-5 off their 50 overs, with Pretoria-born Richie Berrington (72 not out off 80 balls) and Calum MacLeod (64 off 80 balls) helping to beef up the Scottish scorecard.

    Mohammad Nadeem (2-16) and Kaleemullah (2-60) did the most damage with the ball for Oman.

    Tasked with chasing at just over six runs to the over, Oman got their innings off to a flyer, the openers adding 31 runs in the first six overs, but the pressure to keep the scoreboard ticking along soon told as they found themselves on 83-4 after 16.3 overs.

    READ ALSO: Oh man, revenge is sweet!

    Moonamchery Michal (34 off 59 balls), Sandeep Goud (49 off 63) and Khurram Nawaz (30 off 38) kept the chase alive through the middle order to get Oman to 199-7 off 40 overs, with a lot of work still to be done in the final 10 overs.

    Not willing to go down without a fight, the Oman tail wagged superbly, with Fayyaz Butt
    (45 off 39 balls) and Badal Singh (30 not out off 24 balls) keeping their hopes alive, while Kaleemullah slashed a defiant three sixes off the last seven deliveries of the innings to end on 19 not out off just six balls (S/R 316.66) to take Oman to 288-8 off their 50 overs.

    The 15-run victory gave Scotland a 2-1 series win, Safyaan Sharif (3-65) and Berrington (2-44) being up to the task of keeping the Oman batsmen in check with the ball.

    READ ALSO: Shane Burger – from ‘Maritzburugh’ to Edinburgh

    Scorecard

    Photo: Nigel Roddis – IDI/IDI via Getty Images

    Post by

    Simon Lewis