England needed only 19 balls to thrash already-eliminated Oman by eight wickets in record time on Thursday and keep alive their hopes of reaching the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup rummy bo.
The win with 101 balls remaining, and after an hour and 42 minutes, was the fastest in T20 World Cup history and crucially gave the holders a better net run-rate than rivals Scotland.
That was also England’s best bowling performance at a T20 World Cup.
Having won the toss and opting to bowl with the run-rate in mind, the holders made a speedy start at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium as Oman were skittled out for 47 in 13.2 overs — the fourth lowest total in T20 World Cup history.
Spinner and man of the match Adil Rashid took four wickets for 11 runs off his four overs while Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, the latter chalking up his 50th T20 international wicket, bagged three each for 12 runs apiece.
England came out in a hurry and Phil Salt hit the first two balls for sixes before being bowled by the third, Bilal Khan’s delivery deflecting off the inside edge and onto the wicket.
Will Jacks then went for 5, caught by Kashyap Prajapati off Kaleemullah and England were 20-2 after two overs before Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow got the job done in 3.1 overs.
“I thought the tone was set really well by the bowlers, picking up the early wickets,” said captain Buttler, who smashed four fours and a six in the third over.
Bairstow then hit a final four to end the match rummybo.
England’s Group B opener against Scotland was washed out and a loss to Australia meant they had to win their remaining two matches to move level on points with the Scots, who had a significantly superior net run-rate.
“We had a point to prove after the last couple of games,” said Wood.
England play Namibia on Saturday. Victory will put them level on five points with Scotland, who meet already-qualified Australia, who bowled Namibia out for 72, on Sunday.
