Short Score: Ireland (235/5 in 20 overs) beat Oman (139 all-out in 18 overs) by 96 runs in Colombo in a Group B match.
IRE vs OMA T20 WORLD CUP 2026: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
Ireland knocked Oman out of the 2026 FIFA T20 World Cup with a stunning xxx run victory to keep their hopes alive in the competition. Lorcan Tucker’s unbeaten 94, supported by Gareth Delaney’s 30-ball 56 and George Dockrell’s 9-ball 35, saw Ireland post 235 runs in 20 overs, the highest total so far at the 2026 T20 World Cup.
In response, Oman put up some fight with Aamir Kaleem scoring a fighting fifty and Hammad Mirza with 46 to back him up. But once that partnership ended, the Asian side crumbled in front of a disciplined Irish bowling attack that refused to panic even when under pressure.
Josh Little marked his return to the side with three wickets for 16 in his four overs and was well supported by Matthew Humphreys who claimed two wickets for 24 runs in his four overs.
TUCKER FINDS IRISH LUCK
Ireland entered the match with not much luck on their side. They lost captain Paul Stirling to a tournament-ending injury and were completely outclassed by Sri Lanka and Australia. If anything, they needed some spark in the game against Oman in Colombo.
But it was a completely different story as Shakeel Ahmed cleaned up Tim Tector in the first over. Ross Adair went hard and struck on 200 but his stay lasted just seven balls as the Irish were left at 25 for two in 2.4 overs.
With Shakeel also cleaning up Harry Tector, Oman seemed to be running away with things and they learned from their mistakes against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. Tucker was Ireland’s stand-in captain and probably their last remaining superstar with the bat.
In the 8th over, that element of luck came his way. Kaleem’s wide delivery saw Tucker miss the crease and seemingly stumped. But the third referee saw it differently. According to him, goalkeeper Vinayak Shukla did not collect the ball ideally and Tucker got a second life.
Now, when you get a chance like this, you take full advantage of it. At this point, Ireland had lost four wickets and had just 67 runs on the board with eight overs to spare. From there, Tucker and Delaney put the Omani bowlers to the sword with some unconventional shots. But mostly some poor fielding performance from the Omani bowlers and fielders contributed to it.
OMAN REFUSED TO LEARN
While the spinners put Oman in control, it was the pacers who once again let their opponents off the hook. The middle overs saw Ireland bowled out for 68 runs as their attacking intent never collapsed as Oman simply didn’t know what hit them.
Tucker got to his fifty off 35 balls and Delaney was stern in all the wayward, often settling outside the park. The century partnership came in the 17th over when Delaney hit two boundaries and a six, which also took him to his fifty.
As the stand drew to a close, Tucker moved into the power bowl and dismantled Mohammad Nadeem for 26 runs in the 18th over. Dockrell was also batting and getting sixes as he made 21 off the 19th over. Sufyan Mehmood looked to have things under control in the first three balls of the final over, but Dockrell settled for a grand finish with a hat-trick of sixes.
The last four overs saw Ireland score 93 runs, the third highest score at the death in T20 World Cups history. You would be forgiven if the launch from Oman was sensational. However, their calm and conservative move game crept in the moment the wickets started to fall.
The first two overs saw Kaleem and Jatinder Singh’s intent show some fire. Even with two wickets down, Mirza and Kaleem kept it going with 50 runs in the fourth over.
The power play yielded a total of 63 runs and at this point the Irish fans and players got a little sweaty. A 50-run stand between Mirza and Kaleem ended in the ninth over and Oman were ahead at the same point compared to Ireland’s innings.
Aamir Kaleem got to the fifty mark and Mirza was also at good pace, but once the former departed, Ireland understood that the floodgates were opening. In the span of 6 overs, we saw Oman go from 107 for four to the pack when Little broke the chase.
Apart from Kaleem, Mirza and Mehmood, none of the batsmen reached double figures in the end. None of the other batsmen seemed to recognize that it was a chase of over 200 and none even tried to fight.
“The message to the batsmen was very simple – you can’t get defensively close to the target like 235. You have to go there with intent and play your shots. But we ended up losing too many wickets in a short span which made things very difficult for us.”
“I think we were still in the game for the first ten overs. The rate required was high but manageable with wickets in hand. But once we lost wickets quickly, we lost control of the game and couldn’t recover,” said Jatinder after the loss.
He kept stressing the need to play more international cricket in the coming years against big teams. However, Oman’s 2026 FIFA T20 World Cup campaign will be marked by their stubbornness not to learn from the mistakes they made.
They stay alive for Ireland and face Zimbabwe in their final group game on February 17.
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Published on:
February 14, 2026