KING CITY, Ont. — Harsh Thaker scored 93 runs and captain Nicholas Kirton added 57 to help Canada defeat Oman by 59 runs Friday in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play.
It marked a second straight half-century for Kirton, who scored 73 runs not out in Monday's decisive 103-run win over Nepal in the opening match of the triangular series.
The Canadians finished at 276 for eight in their 50 overs Friday. In response, Oman was 217 all out with four overs remaining in a determined effort after battling back from 105 for seven.
The 19th-ranked Canadians face No. 16 Nepal on Sunday and No. 18 Oman next Thursday. Oman and Nepal meet Tuesday, All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
Oman edged Nepal by one wicket Wednesday, scoring the winning runs on the penultimate ball.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
The bottom four teams still have a chance to get to the World Cup qualifier, via another tournament from which the top two teams move on.
Friday's win moved Canada (6-4) into a tie on points with the 14th-ranked Dutch (6-2) atop the World League 2 table. Oman (2-3 with one no-result) is fifth.
Oman won the toss and elected to field. And the decision paid immediate dividends when Aaron Johnson was caught on the first ball and fellow opener Navneet Dhaliwal was removed lbw on two with Canada at 14 for two in the eight over.
Canada rallied after that with No. 3 batsman Pargat Singh scoring 42 runs, with Thaker and Kirton next up.
Thaker, who was dropped on 30, notched his half-century with a six that just missed a sponsor's car on display just outside the boundary. Thaker hit four fours and four sixes in his 103-ball knock while Kirton slammed four sixes and two fours off 50 balls.
Saad Bin Zafar and Dilon Heyliger provided a sting in the Canadian batting tail with 22 and 37 runs respectively.
The Oman bats faltered early, losing openers Kashyap Prajapati and Jatinder Singh for zero and five runs, respectively. Oman found itself at 17 for four before Zeeshan Maqsood (27) and Ayaan Khan (30) steadied the ship.
With Oman down to its last two wickets, Canada turned to Johnson as its seventh bowler of the afternoon. Known as an opening batsman, Johnson conceded seven runs in his first-ever international over as a bowler and just one in the second.
Fayyaz Butt (44) and Shakeel Ahmed (21 not out) frustrated Canada with a stubborn ninth-wicket partnership.
With five overs and two wickets left, Oman needed 62 runs to win. Dilon Heyliger dismissed Butt with Oman at 217 for nine. Kaleemullah, who goes by one name, was caught by Kirton at the boundary two balls late.
Heyliger followed his career-best five-wicket haul with another four wickets Friday, at the expense of 42 runs in eight overs.
Former Canada coach Pubudu Dassanayake is serving an assistant to Oman coach Duleep Mendis at the tournament.
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024
The Canadian Press