Ireland, led by their skipper Lorcan Tucker’s unbeaten 94, scored an incredible 96-run win over Oman in Colombo on Friday to register their first win of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
It was an innings of two halves as Oman ruled the early exchanges while Ireland, with captain Lorcan Tucker at the wheel, went on a run rampage in the second half. Ireland recovered from 64 for 4 in 7.3 overs to pile on 235 for 5 in 20 overs, the highest score at this T20 World Cup and the second-highest overall at T20 World Cups.
“Felt like we had a mixed-bag, hit a lot of boundaries but lost a lot of wickets. A little bit tougher than batting at the start. Had to put in a lot of work on batting against spin. It was about keeping my tempo and capitalising on bad balls for boundaries. We got through the tricky middle period and came back strongly with Dockrell as well,” said Tucker, who was named Player of the Match.
After electing to field, Oman deployed their spinners straight away against the Irish. Left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed gave Oman the perfect start as he ripped through the Ireland top order. He began by bowling Tim Tector with a skidder, had Ross Adair miscue and then beat Harry Tector’s defences to find the top of the off stump.
Tucker and Gareth Delaney joined forces with Ireland reeling at 64 for 4. After playing themselves into rhtythm, the Irish went on the onslaught during a 101 partnership. Delaney scored 56 off 30 balls, with the help of three fours and four sixes.
The Irish captain snatched the game away from Oman, with a memorable innings of unbeaten 94 off just 51 balls, the highest individual score of this edition. It was George Dockrell who added the final flourish, scoring 35 off just nine balls, including three sixes off the last three balls of the innings. Ireland hit a total of 13 sixes and 21 fours and notched 86 runs in the last four overs.
“One of our best days. Turned up and played some positive cricket. We have played against them before. It was about respecting the oppistion. They bowled well through the first ten and then we had the opportunity to come back stronger. We had talked about batting first, happy to do either. We needed to come here and win. Got a boost to our net run rate as well,” Irish skipper Tucker said.
Faced with a tall task, Oman stuttered at the start, losing captain Singh and Ashish Odedara in the third over. There was a glimpse of hope for Oman when Aamir Kaleem and Hammad Mirza were at the crease. They put on a brisk 73-run stand for the third wicket. While Kaleem scored 50 off 29, Mirza controbuted with 46 off 37. But Kaleem’s wicket seemed to break the Omani resistance as they slipped from 97/3 to 139 all out in 18 overs.
The Irish bowlers were in good nick on the day. Left-arm pacer Josh Little checked the middle and lower order with 3/16, while Matthew Humphreys and Ben McCarthy claimed two wickets each.
“Since it was a new track, we wanted to bowl first. When we took the two wickets, we were in the game. They built a partnership after ten overs. Credit to Tucker. We tried to execute our plans but failed. The message in the chase was simple, go and chase the target. Had to play some strokes. Lost too many wickets for some 25 runs at the end. Have to keep our heads high. We lack experience and exposure, and we can gain that by playing the top sides,” said Oman skipper Jatinder Singh.
Brief scores: Ireland 235 for five in 20 overs (Lorcan Tucker 94 not out, Gareth Delany 56, George Dockrell 35 not out; Shakeel Ahmed 3/33) beat Oman 139 in 18 overs (Aamir Kaleem 50, Hammad Mirza 46; Josh Little 3/16, Matthew Humphreys 2/27, Barry McCarthy 3/32).
