T20 World Cup 2024: Nepal, Oman seal WC berths after reaching Asian qualifiers final

Aasif Sheikh (Pic: AFP)

Nepal and Oman cricket teams gave their fans plenty of reason to cheer as they clinched T20 World Cup 2024 berths after winning their respective semi-finals at the Asia region qualifiers. While Oman intimidated under-prepared Bahrain by ten wickets, minnows Nepal notched up a crucial win over the UAE by eight wickets on Friday.

Aqib Ilyas spearheaded Oman's bowling attack, scalping as many as four wickets in the contest, which helped the side to restrict Bahrain to 106 runs for nine in the first innings. Openers Kashyap Prajapati and Pratik Athavale displayed a stellar partnership and wrapped up with under six overs to spare in the second innings.

For Nepal, spinners Kushal Malla and Sandeep Lamichhane once again rose to the occasion, restricting the UAE to a moderate 134 for nine. The UAE's Vriitya Aravind smashed a blazing half-century and held the innings together for the team. To make matters worse for the UAE, Nepal opener Aasif Sheikh lit up the stadium with an unbeaten knock of 64 to have the last laugh.

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18 teams have finalised their spots at the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 which is scheduled to be held in the Caribbean and the US. The final two spots will be decided at the Africa qualifier, which is set to conclude at the end of the month.

West Indies and the USA have automatically confirmed their spot in the tournament as hosts. Besides, Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka qualified by being the top eight teams in the 2022 edition of the competition.

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Afghanistan and Bangladesh, meanwhile, were the two next highest-ranked teams in the upcoming tournament and confirmed their berths. Ireland and Scotland qualified from the Europe region, and Papua New Guinea made it from the East Asia-Pacific region with Canada from the American region.

(With inputs from agencies)