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KING CITY, Ont. – Harsh Thaker scored 93 runs and captain Nicholas Kirton added 57 to help Canada defeat Oman by 59 runs on Friday in League 2 of the ICC Cricket World Cup.

It marked a second consecutive fifty for Kirton, who scored 73 not out in Monday’s emphatic 103-run win over Nepal in the opening match of the triangular series.

The Canadians finished on 276 for eight in their 50 overs on Friday. In reply, Oman were 217 all out with four overs remaining in a determined effort after fighting 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 on Tuesday, All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.

Oman thrashed Nepal by one wicket on 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 teams will advance to a World Cup qualifier which will decide the four final berth in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

The bottom four teams still have a chance to reach the World Cup qualifiers, through another tournament where the top two teams advance.

Friday’s win moved Canada (6-4) level on points with the 14th-placed Dutch (6-2) at the top of the World League 2 table. Oman (2-3 with one draw) in fifth.

Oman won the toss and elected to field. And the decision paid off when Aaron Johnson was caught on the first ball and fellow opener Navneet Dhaliwal was taken lbw on two with Canada at 14 for two in the eight over.

Canada then came out on top with No.3 batsman Pargat Singh scoring 42 runs, with Thaker and Kirton next up.

Thaker, who was dropped on 30, scored his half-century with a six that missed a sponsor’s car being displayed just outside the boundary. Thaker hit four fours and four sixes in his 103-ball knock while Kirton hit four sixes and two fours off 50 balls.

Saad Bin Zafar and Dilon Heyliger provided a sting in Canada’s batting tail with 22 and 37 runs respectively.

Oman’s batsmen failed early, losing openers Kashyap Prajapati and Jatinder Singh for zero and five runs, respectively. Oman found themselves at 17 for four before Zeeshan Maqsood (27) and Ayaan Khan (30) steadied the ship.

With Oman down to their last two wickets, Canada turned to Johnson as their seventh bowler of the afternoon. Known as an opening batsman, Johnson conceded seven runs in his first international 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 remaining, 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 on the boundary two balls late.

Heyliger followed up his career-best five-wicket haul with another four on Friday, at the expense of 42 runs in eight overs.

Former Canada coach Pubudu Dassanayake is serving as assistant to Oman coach Duleep Mendis in the tournament.

Canada won all four games in its opening three series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and 20th-ranked hosts Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked US and host the Netherlands in August.

Canada, who made their T20 World Cup debut this summer in the US and West Indies, are looking to return to the 50-over Cricket World Cup exhibition for the first time since 2011 after missing out have applied 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 nearly a decade by finishing in the top four at the April 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifying Awards in Bermuda.

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This report was first published by The Canadian Press on September 20, 2024