Pakistan beat Oman by 93 runs after electing to bat first in their opening Twenty20 International (T20I) encounter of the men’s Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai on Friday.
The Green Shirts will face India next on Sunday — the arch-rivals will clash in a geopolitically-charged contest in Dubai. It will be the first cricket match between the sides since four days of military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May.
Player of the match Mohammad Haris top-scored with 66 of 43 deliveries after being sent at his preferred position of one down for a change after a string of failures down the order in the tri-series.
Oman restricted the Pakistani batters to 160-7 after the Green Shirts were 85-1 at the halfway mark of the first innings.
However, their batting reply fell apart against the quality of the Pakistani bowling attack — getting bowled out for a paltry 67 on a typical Dubai wicket.
Speaking after the match, skipper Salman Ali Agha said: “With the bat we still need to work [to improve], but the bowling was outstanding — I’m very happy with them as a bowling unit.”
Talking about the next match against India, Salman said that his side has playing good cricket and if they execute their plans they can beat any team.
Speaking at the post-match presser, Haris said the pitch played better than the Sharjah pitch as the ball spun less.
“I worked with the batting coach on my game, and am continuing to work on my calmness while batting and how to tackle spin,” he said.
Saim Ayub was the first to fall for the Green Team in the first innings when pacer Shah Faisal trapped him lbw on the third ball of the innings — the opening pair failing to get a good start again.
Opener Sahibzada Farhan was given a reprieve in the very next over when he was dropped at point off the bowling of left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed.
Haris went after spinner Aamir Kaleem in his very first over — taking 16 off the 6th over with two boundaries and a six as Pakistan ended the powerplay at 47-1.
Haris’s 50 came up with a huge six over the midwicket boundary off the bowling of Sufyan Mehmood — taking 32 deliveries to reach his second 50-plus score in T20Is.
Pakistan were 85-1 at the halfway mark of the innings, with both Haris and Farhan set at the crease on a pitch that did not spin prodigiously across both innings.
However, Kaleem got a chance at redemption when he caught Farhan in the very next over off his bowling — after dropping him earlier in the innings when he had scored only 2.
The left-arm spinner continued on his redemption arc as he got the well-set Haris and skipper Salman off consecutive deliveries in the 13th over.
Haris got bowled while attempting a switch hit off Kaleem, while Salman hit a full toss straight to deep mid-wicket — the Pakistani skipper getting out for a golden duck.
Kaleem ended with figures of 3-31 and was ably supported by his fellow left-arm spinner Ahmed — who conceded just 17 runs of his quota of 4 overs.
The duo kept the Pakistani batters in check through the middle overs after the loss of Salman’s wicket.
Hassan Nawaz was the next man to fall for the Green Shirts as he got caught at the cover boundary off a slower ball by the Dir-born Faisal.
Player of the match in their win against Afghanistan — Mohammad Nawaz brought the momentum back to the Green Shirts’ innings — hitting 3 boundaries in the first five balls that he faced.
However, Oman’s bowlers did not let the match get away from their hands — keeping Pakistan from getting a huge total in the first innings.
Oman’s chase unravels
Oman lost their first wicket courtesy a carrom ball by Saim after he bowled the opposition captain Jatinder Singh in the second over of the innings.
After scoring multiple boundaries off Shaheen Afridi’s second over — first innings hero Kaleem got out lbw trying to sweep Saim in the 4th over.
Oman managed to reach 40-2 at the end of the powerplay, but after losing Mohammad Nadeem to what was essentially a bouncer by left-arm leg-spinner Sufyan Moqeem — their innings unravelled — getting bowled for 67 in 16.4 overs.
The Pakistan bowlers shared the wickets with Sufyan, Saim and Faheem picking up two wickets each.
Captain Salman, speaking at the toss, had said: “The team has been playing good cricket for the last two to three months and we will look to continue that form.”
There were no changes in the playing eleven from the team that won against Afghanistan.
The Green Shirts were clear favourites going into this encounter against Oman, who are ranked 20th in the International Cricket Council T20I rankings and last played competitive T20I matches more than six months ago in February — when they lost thrice in a row to the USA.
White-ball head coach Mike Hesson dismissed concerns about the national squad’s batting performance on Thursday ahead of the upcoming clash with India.
Questioned during a pre-match press conference in Dubai about the team’s batting performance and judgement, Hesson said he was “not quite sure” where the concerns were arising from, saying the team had played against the “best wrist spin attack” in the world and won by over 70 runs against Afghanistan in the tri-series final.
The eight-nation T20 tournament began on Tuesday with Afghanistan beating Hong Kong by 94 runs. India crushed the hosts, the UAE, by nine wickets on Wednesday.
Pakistan, India, Oman and UAE are in Group A, while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Bangladesh form Group B.
The top two teams from each Group will qualify for the Super Four stage.
The top two teams will then play the September 28 final in Dubai.
Teams:
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (captain), Hasan Nawaz, Muhammad Haris (wicket-keeper), Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Sufyan Moqeem, Abrar Ahmed and Muhammad Nawaz.
Oman: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh (capt), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Hassnain Shah, Shah Faisal, Mohammad Nadeem, Zikria Islam, Sufyan Mehmood, Shakeel Ahmed, and Samay Shrivastava
