Bowlers, King help WI pick up consolation win

After the heartbreak of not making it to the World Cup in India, things came together for the West Indies in their dead-rubber match against Oman. Brandon King' second ODI hundred set up the side for a convincing seven-wicket win after the bowlers and fielders impressed on a pretty good surface in Harare and kept the target down to 222. It was their first win in the Super Six stage of the 2023 Men's World Cup qualifier.

Opting to bowl first, Romario Shepherd and Kyle Mayers struck with the new ball, the latter bowling Aqib Ilyas with a sharp inswinger. There was a brief period after that but back-to-back run outs of Kashyap Prajapati and Mohammad Nadeem hurt Oman. It took an 85-run stand for the seventh wicket between Shoaib Khan (50) and Suraj Kumar (53*) to put up a total in excess of 200 but as irony would have it, even this partnership ended via a run out. Shepherd and Mayers returned to wipe the tail, picking five wickets between them, but couldn't quite bowl out Oman.

West Indies's chase got off to a rocky start with the dismissal of Johnson Charles in the second over. But from thereon, King and Keacy Carty added 80 runs for the second wicket and set the side up in what was at best a modest chase on a good batting surface. Carty fell to a run out, the fourth batter in the game to meet that fate, but Oman looked short of ideas once captain Shai Hope joined King in the middle. The duo added 96 runs, with King reaching his century 102 balls. He, though, was out a couple of balls later when he couldn't get on top of the bounce from Bilal Khan.

Hope (63*) and Nicholas Pooran (19*) saw the chase through with 10.2 overs to spare.

Brief Scores: Oman 221/9 (Suraj 53*, Shoaib 50; Shepherd 3-44, Mayers 2-31) lost to WI 222/3 in 39.4 overs (King 100, Hope 63*) by 7 wickets