Oman D20 – Day 8 Review: Azaiba XI and Ghubrah Giants cruise to comfortable victories

Two matches were played on Day 8 of the Oman D20 league. Both games were fairly one-sided encounters. Azaiba XI and Ghubrah Giants registered easy victories against Bousher Busters and Khuwair Royals respectively.

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The Giants have leapfrogged the Ruwi Rangers and are placed second on the points table. Meanwhile, Azaiba XI registered their first victory of the tournament and are placed last with two points.

In the first game of the day, Azaiba XI beat Busters by seven wickets. Opting to field first, the team restricted Busters to just 155. Imran Muhammed’s four wickets did not allow the Busters batters to have any sort of momentum in the innings. Adnan Sulehri’s 66 and Ajay Lalcheta’s 42 helped the team get to a challenging score.

In reply, Azaiba XI lost three wickets and were looking in danger of messing up the run chase. However, Rao Waqar Ahmed and Hammad Mizra resurrected the innings. The latter was the aggressor of the two as he ended up scoring an unbeaten 85 off just 44 balls. Meanwhile, Ahmed scored a solid unbeaten 40 and ensured a good win for Azaiba.

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In the second and last of the day, the Giants cruised to a comfortable six-wicket victory over the Warriors. The Giants made the 162 run target look easy. Ghazanfar Iqbal’s blistering knock of 40 off just 17 balls knocked the stuffing out of the Warriors. Imran Latif too scored a valuable unbeaten 51 and ensured the chase was completed with seven balls to spare.

Meanwhile, the Warriors will be dejected by the thumping loss. Their batters managed to post a challenging score of 161 but their bowlers let them down. Barring Syed Amir Ali, the rest of the bowlers conceded more than eight runs per over. The Warriors have now lost two games and are placed fifth on the points table.