UAE and Ireland qualify for ICC T20 World Cup 2022

The UAE and Ireland on Tuesday confirmed their tickets for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia after reaching the final of Qualifier A in Al Amrat, Oman.

UAE restricted Nepal’s three-match winning run to a 68-run victory while Ireland beat Oman by 56 runs.

At Oman Academy Ground 1, United Arab Emirates made a clinical performance to reach the T20 World Cup for the second time. The UAE last made it to the global showpiece event in 2014.

For Ireland, the only full member nation in Qualifier A, this will be their seventh appearance in the global showpiece.

The two winning teams finished 13th and 14th for the tournament in Australia later this year, with the final two places to be decided in Qualifier B in July.

Chasing a target of 176, Nepal were dealt a blow by early attacks from UAE pacer Junaid Siddiqui.

Tej was in top gear, removing the top three Nepal batsmen in his three-over spell. In a sensational opening over, Siddiqui dismissed opener Asif Sheikh and one-down batsman Lokesh Bam for two consecutive deliveries. Nepal were 3 for 2 in six balls and the chase seemed to be a tall order.

Siddiqui then took the reward of Nepal’s in-form batsman Kushal Bhurtel in his second over. In the 13th over, UAE captain Ahmed Raza’s double strike extinguished all hopes of Nepal and were reduced to 83 for 6 wickets.

Raza’s golden arm gave him more success to bundle out Nepal’s innings for 107 and his five-wicket haul earned him the player of the match award. The experienced pair of Deepender Singh Airi (38) and Gyanendra Malla were the only batsmen to reach double digits.

Earlier, Vritya Aravind continued his scintillating batting performance. A blistering knock of 46 off 23 set the tone for his team’s impressive total.

(PTI reports)