Colombo, February 14 – Oman won the toss and chose to bowl against Ireland in their third match of the 2026 T20 World Cup at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) on Saturday.
This Group B match is a must-win for both Ireland and Oman. The team that loses will be eliminated from contention for the Super 8 stage.
After winning the toss, Oman captain Jatinder Singh said, "Yes, we will bowl first since it's a new pitch, so we just want to bowl first. Yes, that's right. We just want to focus on small things. What we have done, I mean, in the last two games, our batting didn't perform well, so we're just focusing on batting effectively."
"Just try to stay focused and avoid making mistakes. Yes, absolutely. We never expected that the SSC pitch would behave this way. But yes, if you lose four wickets during the power play, almost the entire team is out of the game, so it's difficult to come back. There are two changes. Shakeel and Ashish are coming into the team," he added.
Spinner Joshua Little is back in the Ireland playing XI after missing the previous match.
While Ireland captain Lorcan Tucker said, "Yes, I think in these situations, you really have to stay positive. We see this as a good opportunity to get our team going and really perform well in our last game against Zimbabwe."
Speaking about Paul Stirling being ruled out of the tournament due to injury, Tucker said, "Obviously, it's a huge disappointment, and he's a very important player for our team. But I think it's just something that's happened. It's unfortunate. We have to try to move on and compete. No, I think we've talked a lot about our team's character and resilience. I think it's important for us to come back and perform well when we haven't been at our best. So, I think we'll be looking to do that tonight."
Playing XIs
Ireland: Ross Adair, Tim Tector, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk/c), Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Matthew Humphreys, Joshua Little
Oman: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh (c), Hammad Mirza, Ashish Odedara, Mohammad Nadeem, Jiten Ramanandi, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Nadeem Khan, Sufyan Mehmood, Shah Faisal, Shakeel Ahmed