Tucker’s 94 keeps Ireland’s World Cup hopes alive

Men’s T20 World Cup, Group B, Colombo

Ireland 235-5 (20 overs): Tucker 94* (51); Ahmed 3-33

Oman 139 all out (18 overs): Kaleem 50 (29); Little 3-16

Ireland win by 96 runs

Stand-in captain Lorcan Tucker hit an unbeaten 94 to lead Ireland to a 96-run win over Oman at the T20 World Cup.

Having lost their opening games against Sri Lanka and Australia, Ireland needed both victory and a boost to their net run-rate to have any hopes of progression.

What was to be a first win at the tournament since beating England in 2022 looked in doubt when Tucker came to the crease with his side 25-2, but the wicketkeeper equalled his highest score in the format to power Ireland to 235-5 by the end of their innings.

Despite Aamir Kaleem providing a half-century, Oman wickets fell quickly with Josh Little leading the way for Ireland’s bowlers with three wickets for 16 runs.

While Tucker filled in for the injured Paul Stirling as captain, it was Tim Tector who opened the batting in place of the Belfast man.

Ireland’s struggles for a top-order partnership, however, continued with Shakeel Ahmed doing the damage.

The 38-year-old, celebrating wickets in the style of Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, accounted for Tim Tector (5), Ross Adair (14) and Harry Tector (14) during the powerplay with Ireland reeling somewhat on 47-3 after six overs.

With Curtis Campher, who provided 12 off seven balls, not sticking around either, it was up to all-rounder Gareth Delany to team up with Tucker and give Ireland’s innings some much needed momentum.

The pair’s 101-run partnership off 56 balls took Ireland from what was a shaky start to a position that would lead to their highest ever T20 international total.

While there were seven boundaries among Delany’s 56 off 30 balls, it was Tucker’s efforts that were to provide the headline act.

An inventive knock that featured 10 fours and four sixes, the only scare came when, with Ireland 67-4, Vinayak Shukla appeared to have him stumped only for the third umpire to judge that Oman’s wicketkeeper had dislodged the bails without the ball in his hand.

Tucker certainly made the most of the reprieve, pressing on for what is the best knock of the tournament so far, eclipsing Tim Seifert’s 89 against UAE for New Zealand.

If 93 runs in the final five overs of Ireland’s innings had appeared to leave the result a formality, Heinrich Malan’s side will have had improving their net run-rate on the mind too.

Oman were 63-2 after the powerplay, and brought up their 100 in the 11th over, both ahead of the pace set by Ireland, but wickets feel too cheaply to ever bring such a target into realistic focus.

Aamir Kaleem led the way with the 44-year-old becoming the oldest player in T20 World Cup history to make a half-century, reaching his fifty in 28 deliveries to break the record set by team-mate Muhammad Nadeem against Sri Lanka only on Thursday.

Most encouraging for Ireland’s bowlers was the performance of Josh Little.

The seamer, who had been without a wicket in his past four T20 internationals, finished with figures of 3-16.

The 26-year-old, whose 4-23 against Sri Lanka at this tournament in 2021 built his reputation as Ireland’s most dangerous quick, had been left out of the side for the opening two games this time around.

Bowling with a menacing pace throughout, the left-armer was denied a wicket with his fifth delivery when Ireland’s struggles in the field at this tournament continued as Delany dropped Aamir in the deep.