Zimbabwe opened their T20 World Cup campaign with a comfortable eight-wicket win over Oman thanks to an unbeaten 48 from Brian Bennett.
Oman struggled with the pace and bounce of Zimbabwe’s pace attack at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo as they were knocked over for 103.
Blessing Muzarabani blew away the Associate nation’s top order with 3-16 and at 27-5, Oman were in danger of being bowled out for fewer than their lowest total in World Cups – 47 against England at North Sound in 2024.
But a 44-run stand between Sufyan Mehmood and Vinayak Shukla at least added some respectability to the scorecard for Oman, who are ranked 20th in the world.
Shukla top-scored with 28 off 21 balls while Mehmood ground out 25 off 39 deliveries and they were two of only three Oman players to make it into double figures
The other was Nadeem Khan, who hit their only six of the innings, en route to an 18-ball 20 before he was dismissed by superb diving catch in the deep by Bennett.
Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans finished with 3-17 and 3-18 respectively for the the Chevrons.
Zimbabwe, who failed to qualify for the last World Cup, made relatively light work of the run chase as they knocked off the total in 13.3 overs.
Mehmood winkled out Tadiwanashe Marumani and Dion Myers in the same over – the second on review after a superb catch by wicketkeeper Shukla – to cause Zimbabwe a few nerves at 30-2.
But Oman were unable to make any further inroads as opener Bennett hit seven fours during a fluent knock off 36 balls.
The only sour point for Zimbabwe was when Brendan Taylor pulled up with a hamstring injury and had to retire hurt on 31 leaving skipper Sikandar Raza to hit the winning runs.
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