Saudi Arabia bow out of ACC Premier Cup with heads held high after Oman defeat

KATHMANDU: Saudi Arabia’s run in the ACC Premier Cup 2023 came to an end on Wednesday when they lost to Oman by 72 runs, but the squad will go home with high praise for their performance.

Saud Arabia’s appearance in the tournament held in Nepal started last Thursday. The team lost the first fixture to Malaysia but two days later outplayed Qatar. On Monday, they split competition points with Nepal after their group stage game was abandoned because of rain.

In Wednesday’s match, Saudi Arabia folded with 294 runs in the 47th over in reply to Oman’s 366 runs for six wickets in 50 overs. With that result, the Saudi team came fourth in Group A, collecting three points in four matches. Victorious Oman (six) and hosts Nepal (five) progressed to the semifinals, while the journeys of Malaysia (four) and winless Qatar ended in the group stage.

After the match with Oman, Saudi head coach Kabir Khan told Arab News that the team, which was still new to international cricket, showed great talent.

“Oman are an experienced side. They have been in the game for a long time. Today they won with experience, talentwise we were good enough,” he said.

“Teams like Nepal, Oman and UAE have been playing cricket at this level for 15, 20 years. And if we look at the new Saudi Arabia team, we’ve been playing for a year now. So, the difference is there and we’ve got talent we can work on.”

The team’s captain, Hisham Sheikh, was proud of the fightback shown by Saudi batters Abdul Waheed and Saad Khan.

“Both Waheed and Saad played really well in the middle,” he said. “We had pressure to score at six, seven runs per over and we couldn’t continue that throughout the innings. A bit of trouble in the middle cost us but we will take this as a