Scotland and Oman complete T20 World Cup 2020 lineup

T20 World Cup 2020

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019 completed its purpose with two playoff encounters on 30th October (Wednesday) in UAE. Scotland and Oman registered victories over UAE and Hong Kong to take the final spots in the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup. Earlier, Ireland and Papua New Guinea had clinched the automatic qualifying berths. Netherlands and Namibia were the other two teams who secured qualification by winning the first playoff round.

Scotland take down UAE

UAE who finished the group stage in third place lost to Netherlands in the first playoff. They had another opportunity of qualifying by beating Scotland in the eliminator. The Scots determined to make most of their only chance, batted belligerently. George Munsey’s 65 (43 balls) and Richie Berrington’s 48 (18 balls) carried them to 198/6. UAE’s depleted unit failed to catch up with the Scots. The hosts folded up for 108 all-out thus bowing out of the tournament.

Oman prevail against Hong Kong

At one stage of the tournament, Oman were cruising towards the automatic qualifying spot with four wins in their first five matches. However, two consecutive losses meant they had only one chance of qualifying – by beating Hong Kong. At 42/6, Oman were in a crisis. Opener Jatinder Singh’s 67 from 50 balls and Naseem Khushi’s cameo of 26 from 9 balls helped them post a total of 134/7. Oman pacers then reduced Hong Kong to 18/5 and eventually clinched the encounter by 12 runs.

The complete lineup

Papua New Guinea and Ireland were the first two teams to qualify for the World Cup in Australia. Both topped their respective groups to clinch the automatic qualification. Netherlands defeated UAE by 8 wickets and Namibia won by 54 runs against Oman to become the next two teams to book their tickets to Australia. Scotland and Oman then secured the final two places by winning their eliminators. These six teams will now join Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the opening round of the T20 World Cup 2020.