The Indian Cricket Team defeated Oman by 21 runs in the final Group A match of the Asia Cup 2025 in a game that saw the Men in Blue experiment with several batting and bowling combinations. This was certainly a fascinating game to watch.
The India vs Oman game was Match 12 of the ACC Asia Cup 2025 and saw India win the toss and decide to bat first, going against the trend of this competition. The match was played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill opened the batting for India. And like he has done throughout his international career, Sharma hit the ground running from the very beginning. However, it was Gill who played eight out of the first nine balls, making five runs before getting out.
Over the next six overs, Sharma built a solid partnership alongside a promoted Sanju Samson at No. 3. The two took the run rate to around 10, as the score reached 70 in seven overs. But then,. In the very next one, Abhishek was dismissed after scoring 38 off 15.
Sanju played the anchor role in this inning, forming partnerships around a revolving cast of batters. Axar made 26 off 13 and made a 45-run partnership with Samson, and while Shivam Dube got out for cheap, Tilak Varma played a decent inning of 29 off 18.
Yes, Tilak Varma came in to bat at No. 7. This was captain Suryakumar Yadav’s strategy to give batting opportunities to every player in the side ahead of the Super Four.
Samson would get out for 56 off 45 in the 18th over as the team score was 171/6, while Tilak would get out in the very next over. Pacer Harshit Rana hit a massive six in the final over, taking India to 188/8.
But did you notice something? One batter did not appear in the batting order, that being captain Suryakumar Yadav, who, in the strategy of giving everybody a chance to bat, pushed himself way down the order to number 11. This strategy of giving every player a chance to play continued into the second inning as well, as India used eight bowlers in this match, including the likes of Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma. Meanwhile, good-performing bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy were dropped from this game; in their place played the pace duo of Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana.
Oman got off to a solid start in their batting. The opening pair of Aamir Kaleem and captain Jatinder Singh scored 44 runs in the powerplay and did not lose their wickets. By the time Jatinder got out for 32 off 33, being bowled by Kuldeep Yadav in the ninth over, the score was 56/1.
Aamir Kaleem, who had been playing in an attacking manner so far, slowed down at this point, allowing the incoming Hammad Mirza to play quickly.
For the next nine overs, the two men did not lose their wickets and scored 93 runs. And while this partnership was a massive achievement for a team like Oman, the two batters could not pull the run rate closer to the required amount.
In the 18th over, Kaleem got out for 64 off 46. The score at this point was 149/2. And by the time Mirza got out in the next over after scoring a half-century of his own, 34 runs were required in seven deliveries.
The last over, bowled by Arshdeep Singh, saw him concede 12 runs. But more importantly, he also took the wicket of wicketkeeper Vinayak Shukla. This was Arshdeep’s 100th T20I wicket. Not only did he become the first Indian bowler to reach the milestone, but he has also become the fastest fast bowler to take 100 wickets in the format, doing so in just 64 matches.
India ended up winning the match by 21 runs. For his half-century that anchored the inning, Sanju Samson was named the Player of the Match.
This India vs Oman game was the last match of the Asia Cup 2025 group stage. India has topped Group A, with Pakistan finishing second. The two Asian giants will compete in their first respective Super Four matches on Sunday, September 21. They will also face the two teams from Group B, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, in the second round.
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