Colombo: Zimbabwe defeated Oman by 8 wickets in the opening match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign at the Sinhala Stadium on Monday.
Chasing Oman’s modest 104 runs, Zimbabwe reached the target with the loss of just 2 wickets in 14 overs. Openers Brian Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani gave the team a strong start, scoring quickly in a low-scoring match.
Marumani scored 21 runs off Sufyan Mehmood’s 11 balls in the fourth over, including 5 fours, to break the opening stand of 30 runs. Shortly after, Dion Myers ducked the second ball and Zimbabwe were 30-2 in 3.3 overs.
Brian Bennett found support from Brendan Taylor and they took the team past 50 in the seventh over to reach a 50-run partnership.
However, Taylor retired injured after scoring 31 off 30 balls, making way for skipper Sikandar Raza.
Raza hit a boundary and scored the winning runs, remaining unbeaten on 5 off two balls, while Bennett scored 48 off 36 balls including 7 fours.
Batting first, Oman got off to a disappointing start as skipper Jatinder Singh was dismissed for 5 off one ball off the first delivery of the second over by Blessing Musharrafani.
The pressure intensified in the next over when Hammad Mirza was ducked out by Richard Ngarawa in 5 balls and Oman struggled to an early 8-2 in 2.2 overs.
Oman slipped further in the fourth over as Kaleem was dismissed cheaply for five runs off 7 balls, including a boundary. In the same over, Karan Sonawale was sent back for a duck, compounding Oman’s woes.
The collapse continued, with Sikandar Raza clean-boiling Wasim Ali for 3 off eight balls as Oman were reduced to 27-5 in six overs.
Sufyan Mehmood and Vinayak Shukla tried to stabilize the innings, putting on a 42-run partnership to take the total past 50 runs.
However, at 69-6 in 14.1 overs, Ngarawa broke the stand by dismissing Shukla for 28 with four fours off 21 balls.
In the same over, Oman lost their seventh wicket as Jitan Ramanandhi was dismissed for one run in three balls to give Nagarawa their third wicket of the innings.
Mehmood was dismissed by Brad Evans in the 17th over after scoring 25 runs off 39 balls including 2 fours. Despite struggling early on, Nadeem Khan and Shakeel Ahmed added some late runs.
Evans bowled the final over and dismissed Shakeel for 4, while Shah Faisal hit a boundary off his first ball to take Oman past 100.
Nadeem Khan was the last wicket to be dismissed by Evans after scoring a crucial 20 off 18 balls.
For Zimbabwe, Blessing Musarabani, Brad Evans and Richard Nagarava took 3 wickets each and Sikandar Raza took one wicket.