Oman’s big night, India’s quiet test

Oman's big night, India's quiet test

It was about 4:15 pm local when Jatinder Singh, Oman's captain, walked towards the pitch at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. He wasn't inspecting the playing surface. He was visualizing, with a bat in hand, what it would feel like to bat against the No. 1 side in the world. India weren't even out on the ground until 20 minutes before the toss. Jatinder's team had been there for hours, warming up, huddling often, building themselves up for the moment.

Oman were playing India for the first time and everything about them suggested how eager they were for the occasion. Even before a ball was bowled, the day felt like it belonged to them. And by the end, it did. Not in terms of the result, but in how close they pushed India with the fraction of resources at their disposal, and turned the match into something it was never supposed to be: a contest.

They may not have known what to expect from India, yet when the time came, Shah Faisal got his left-arm seam to come in like an offbreak and breach Shubman Gill's defence. Jiten Ramanandi collected every ball driven back at him, a couple of them ricocheting onto the stumps for run-outs at the non-striker's end. Aamir Kaleem and Zikria Islam stitched together a spell of 22 balls of spin that tied down Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson in the middle overs. And with the bat, Oman's openers put on a stand of 56 runs. Aamir raised a fifty off 38 balls and Hammad Mirza followed with one off 30.

For much of the night, Oman didn't look out of the game and their wins showed in small moments. Like in the 17th over, when Suryakumar brought in mid-off and pushed back fine leg, suggesting to a well-set Aamir Kaleem that a short ball was on its way. Instead, Arshdeep Singh bowled a full delivery on the stumps, hoping for an lbw, only for the ball to be heaved through square leg for a boundary.

But the "lack of experience and exposure" that Jatinder has spoken about during this Asia Cup was always lurking, waiting to catch up in the pressure of a tight chase. One wicket, courtesy Hardik Pandya's superb running catch at fine leg in the 18th over, and suddenly India's victory felt inevitable.

But Oman had already made their point. And as their captain said after the match, "the boys are ready to roar" in the T20 World Cup qualifiers that will be played in Oman.

India's calls throughout the game suggested they wanted a workout before the Super Fours and they certainly got it. They rested the two bowlers who would have been the toughest to face for any new team: Jasprit Bumrah, with his pace, angles and aura; and Varun Chakaravarthy, with his legbreaks and googly that now come out of his hand.

With the bat, everyone got a turn except Suryakumar Yadav. Maybe that was the point. India have been vocal about flexibility before the T20 World Cup, about how only the openers are locked in. So Samson came in at No. 3. India had played two matches without really knowing what he looked like as a non-opener, so this was his audition. But one would think that his sluggish fifty, the slowest of his T20I career, didn't give many answers.

Then it was Pandya, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube and Tilak Varma with the bat, and in that order. Even Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav batted ahead of their captain. And while only Axar and Tilak got to face more than 10 balls, the other batters still got their precious few minutes in the middle, which they didn't quite have the luxury of in India's back-to-back dominant victories.

On a sluggish pitch, India's 188/8 was more impressive than it looked. Scoring this Asia Cup's joint-highest team total even with so much self-imposed randomness at play showed how good Suryakumar Yadav's team is.

Come the second innings, Shivam Dube bowled; he hadn't against Pakistan. Abhishek Sharma bowled; he hadn't against UAE. Even Tilak Varma bowled; he hadn't all Asia Cup. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana bowled for the first time in this tournament. India used eight bowlers in all,the joint-most they have used in a T20I match; they had used six each against UAE and Pakistan.

"I think it was very, very important for other guys to chip in and get a game under their belt," T Dilip, India's fielding coach, said. "Because we never know who can be used at what point of time. The key thing for us is to make sure that we get as many players as possible a game under their belt. Oman played well, and I'm glad that we held the nerves in the end better."