PALLEKELE: Australia demolished Oman by nine wickets in their final Twenty20 World Cup group match on Friday, delivering a dominant display that ultimately came too late to salvage a disappointing campaign with both sides already eliminated.

Chasing a modest target of 105 in Pallekele, skipper Mitchell Marsh was in no mood to hang around and ruthlessly dispatched Oman’s bowlers to all corners of the park, bringing up his 50 off just 26 balls inside the first powerplay.

Oman’s Shakeel Ahmed collided with wicket-keeper Vinayak Shukla when he had Travis Head caught and bowled off a top edge for 32, but the 38-year-old spinner was so overjoyed he brought out Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark goal celebration.

Marsh remained unbeaten on 64 with seven boundaries and four sixes to guide Australia home with 62 balls to spare, equalling the T20 World Cup record for the fastest chase of a total over 100.

Australia finished third in the group with two wins and two defe­ats, with Marsh describing the 2021 champions’ campaign as a “missed opportunity”, while win­l­ess Oman propped up the table with no points.

“Unfortunately we di­dn’t play our best in a couple of games that we needed to and that’s tou­r­nament play,” Marsh said.

“You lose that game to Zimbabwe and you’re un­­d­er pressure and fair play to them, wish them all the best. But we’re a very disappointed group.”

Australia produced a clinical bowling display to dismiss Oman for 104 after winning the toss and opting to field, with Adam Zampa finishing with figures of 4-21.

Fast bowler Xavier Bartlett set the tone with a wicket off the very first ball, removing Aamir Kaleem before he had skipper Jatinder Singh also bowled.

Oman attempted to rebuild but none of their batters converted their starts while Wasim Ali stood out with a gritty 32, offering the only meaningful resistance.

Zampa claimed his fourth four-wicket haul in T20 World Cups.

“It’s been a rough few days, there’s a few quiet voices around the team at the moment,” he said after picking up the player of the match award.

“We’re feeling pretty flat about the World Cup ending so soon for us. We feel like we’ve built something over the last few years.

“We played a specific brand of cricket that we thought was going to work and under pressure it unfortunately didn’t for us. So yeah, we’re disappointed.”

SCOREBOARD

OMAN:

A. Kaleem b Bartlett 0

J. Singh b Bartlett 17

K. Sonavale b Ellis 12

H. Mirza b Zampa 16

W. Ali b Maxwell 32

M. Nadeem lbw b Zampa 2

V. Shukla c Green b Stoinis 9

J. Ramanandi lbw b Maxwell 1

S. Ahmed c Bartlett b Zampa 3

J. Odedra not out 4

S. Jan b Zampa 0

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-6) 8

TOTAL (all out, 16.2 overs) 104

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Kaleem), 2-24 (Sonavale), 3-39 (Singh), 4-59 (Mirza), 5-69 (Nadeem), 6-86 (Shukla), 7-89 (Ramanandi), 8-100 (Ali), 9-104 (Ahmed)

BOWLING: Bartlett 4-0-27-2 (1w), Stoinis 2-0-16-1, Ellis 2-0-14-1 (1w), Green 2-0-11-0, Zampa 3.2-0-21-4, Maxwell 3-0-13-2

AUSTRALIA:

M. Marsh not out 64

T. Head c&b Ahmed 32

J. Inglis not out 12

TOTAL (for one wicket, 9.4 overs) 108

DID NOT BAT: C. Green, T. David, M. Renshaw, G. Maxwell, M. Stoinis, X. Bartlett, N. Ellis, A. Zampa

FALL OF WICKET: 1-93 (Head)

BOWLING: Jan 2-0-30-0, Odedra 2-0-21-0, Ahmed 4-0-29-1, Ali 1-0-18-0, Ramanandi 0.4-0-10-0

RESULT: Australia won by nine wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Adam Zampa

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2026