Balbirnie & Stirling lead Ireland to T20 win in Oman

Half-centuries to Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling, following three-wicket hauls for Simi Singh and Mark Adair, propelled Ireland to a convincing nine-wicket win over hosts Oman at the Al Almerat Stadium in Muscat on Saturday.

Captain Balbirnie looked imperious, playing several flashing drives through the off side and hitting three maximums in his player-of-the-match performance in his second-highest T20 international knock of his career to date.

His unbeaten 75 came from just 49 balls, and while he was dropped twice along the way, he deserved the plaudits as he left the field after hitting the winning runs with a pull shot over the mid-wicket boundary.

Balbirnie was ably supported by Stirling, who hit his 20th T20I half-century. The pair combined for Ireland men's sixth century-partnership in T20Is, before Stirling played possibly the only rash shot of his innings, coming down the track to spinner Khawar Ali and being stumped.

Earlier in the day, Balbirnie won the toss and elected to bowl, with Ireland getting off to a positive start with Mark Adair (3-25) striking with the third ball of the innings, knocking back Kashyap Prajapati’s middle stump with an outswinger that pitched on leg but beat the bat.

Oman then went on the counter-attack, led by Shoaib Khan in his second T20I for the home side. Khan struck five boundaries in the first two overs, racing to 21 from 9 balls, but Craig Young (2-22) broke through with Jatinder Singh holing out to Shane Getkate at long off.

Khan continued to pile on the runs, bringing up his maiden T20I half-century from 30 balls, but wickets started to tumble at the other end after the introduction of Simi Singh.

Singh snared an incredible 3-9 from his four overs, as the run rate began to slow