Team news, likely XIs, form guide, players to watch, odds, TV and streaming information, weather forecast, umpire appointments and everything else you need to know
Oman take on Papua New Guinea in the opening game of the T20 World Cup.
The game is scheduled for 2pm local time (11am BST) on Sunday, October 17, 2021.
The final will be held at the Oman Cricket Academy Ground at Al Amerat in Oman.
Oman Cricket Academy Ground: Ground guide
Oman have not played a formal T20I since February 2020, but they have had four run-outs in the format in October in the build-up to the World Cup.
A touring Sri Lankan side inflicted a pair of defeats - by six wickets and 19 runs - while a further loss came at the hands of the Netherlands. A 32-run win over Namibia in a World Cup warm-up will go some way to giving the host nation confidence.
Oman have won six and lost four of the 10 official T20Is they have played at the Al Amerat ground.
The most recent meeting of these two teams came in the 50-over Cricket World Cup League 2 in September. On that occasion, Oman eased to a 110-run victory. All four ODIs between these two teams have resulted in Oman wins. This is the first time these sides have come up against each other in a T20I.
Papua New Guinea, the rank outsiders in this contest, were heavily beaten by Scotland and lost to Namibia in the warm-up fixtures.
Dafabet make Oman the hot favourites in this one, with the host nation available at incredibly short odds of 2/11. Fancy Papua New Guinea to spring an upset? Then you can back them at 15/4.
Few of Oman’s batsmen are exactly shrinking violets, but neither are they romping along at stratospheric strike-rates, as they play their cricket on dusty turners.
You can expect to see Zeeshan Maqsood (T20 strike-rate 118), their most polished player, picking up anything short through the legside – though he has dropped down from opening of late.
Bilal Khan is the real standout with the ball, and his mode of attack – hitting the stumps with yorkers tipping 90mph – seems ideally suited to home wickets. He has a decent average of 16.25 in T20Is – almost all played in Asia – and a strike-rate of 14.3 ranks in the top 12 in history.
He swings the new ball at almost 90mph and bowls searing yorkers with the old.
Papua New Guinea captain Assad Vala (ranked 466 on the T20 Player Index) doesn’t fall into the category of great orator, but he leads by example with bat and ball in an incredibly energetic PNG side.
In what looks the tournament’s weakest batting side, a great deal rests on Vala, who more often than not lifts the tempo – as he did against Oman in CWC League 2 recently. Even so, he has just three fifties in 45 T20 matches at a strike-rate of just over 100.
Coming soon.
The following umpires and match referees have been named by the ICC to officiate in the T20 World Cup 2021:
Referees: David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Javagal Srinath
Umpires: Chris Brown, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Langton Rusere, Rod Tucker, Joel Wilson, Paul Wilson
The following officials have been allocated to this fixture:
On-field umpires: Dharmasena, Gaffaney
TV umpire: Kettleborough
Fourth umpire: Raza
Referee: Madugalle
Full T20 World Cup officials appointments: Click here
Temperatures are set to hit 34 Celsius come the first ball of this fixture.
Follow the Met Office forecast here.
Yes, though Covid protocols including the wearing of face masks will be in place.
Click here to visit the ICC's ticketing site.
There will be a lot of neutral support for Papua New Guinea but it is almost impossible to look past a relatively comfortable Oman win, especially on home turf.
T20 WORLD CUP TEAM GUIDES
Sky Sports Cricket (Sky 404, Talk Talk 404, BT TV 423, Virgin 504) will broadcast the series in the United Kingdom, with the content available online via its streaming platform Sky Go.
BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra will have live ball-by-ball radio commentary of all tournament matches, accessible through the BBC Sport website, BBC Sounds or DAB radio.
The Star Sports network is showing the tournament in India. Matches can be streamed via Disney+ Hotstar
Other broadcasters by territory:
Australia - Fox Sports, Channel 9, Kayo Sports
New Zealand – Sky Sport New Zealand
Pakistan - PTV Sports, Ten Sports
Bangladesh - Ghazi Tv (GTV)
Sri Lanka – SLRC (Channel Eye)
South Africa – SuperSport
Caribbean – ESPN
Middle East and North Africa – eLife TV, StarzPlay, Switch TV
USA – ESPN+
Singapore - Star Cricket, Star Hub and Singtel
Malaysia - Fox International Channels
Hong Kong - Star Cricket
Oman: Zeeshan Maqsood (c), Aqib Ilyas, Jatinder Singh, Khawar Ali, Mohammad Nadeem, Ayaan Khan, Suraj Kumar, Sandeep Goud, Nester Dhamba, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan, Naseem Khushi, Sufyan Mehmood, Fayyaz Butt, Khurram Khan
Papua New Guinea: Assad Vala (c), Charles Amini, Hiri Hiri, Norman Vanua, Tony Ura, J. Gardner, J. Kila, Vani Vagi Morea, Chad Soper, Lega Siaka, Damien Ravu, Nosaina Pokana, Gaudi Toka, Kiplin Doriga (wk), Sese Bau, Simon Atai
Oman: Jatinder Singh, Khawar Ali, Aqib Ilyas, Zeeshan Maqsood (c), Suraj Kumar, Sandeep Goud, Naseem Khushi (wk), Ayaan Khan, Fayyaz Butt, Kaleemullah, Bilal Khan
Papua New Guinea: Tony Ura, Lega Siaka, Assad Vala (c), Charles Amini, Sese Bau, Kiplin Doriga (wk), Norman Vanua, Jason Kila, Chad Soper, Nosaina Pokana, Damien Ravu
T20 World Cup Hub: News, features, stats, live scores
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