Ireland rocked by Stirling injury ahead of must-win Oman clash

Reeling from two defeats and now without captain Paul Stirling due to a knee injury, Ireland will look to keep their fading Super Eight hopes alive when they take on fellow strugglers Oman in a Group B clash of the T20 World Cup here on Saturday. Both the teams have suffered two losses respectively and will be desperate to register their first victory in the tournament. While Ireland lost to co-hosts Sri Lanka and Australia by 20 and 67 runs respectively, Oman were trounced by Zimbabwe by eight wickets and Sri Lanka by 105 runs. As if the two defeats were not enough, Ireland were banking on Stirling to inspire but he was ruled out of the remainder of the T20 World Cup after sustaining ligament damage to his right knee, ahead of the Oman match. Stirling hurt his right knee when completing a catch during Ireland's 67-run loss to Australia here on Wednesday. The experienced captain aggravated the injury later in the same match when he attempted a quick single after returning to the crease to bat. Despite the setback, Ireland will have an edge over Oman, a team which mostly consists of India and Pakistan-origin players. Ireland know very well that they will have to win big to keep their slim chance of remaining in the tournament afloat, while Oman will be looking to prove a point after two heavy losses. With Stirling not there, the onus would be on the likes of Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher to convert their starts into big scores to bolster Ireland's batting department, which was found wanting in the two losses. Uncapped youngster Sam Topping, who has been named as Stirling's replacement, too will have big shoes to fill. In bowling department, left-arm spinner George Dockrell has been Ireland's best bowler in the tournament so far in terms of economy and wickets, but he would look for support from the likes of fast bowlers Mark Adair and Barry McCarthy, and spinners Matthew Humphreys and Gareth Delany. Oman, on the other hand, have nothing to lose and would be hoping for an all-round show to upset Ireland and register their maiden win in the tournament. On head-to-head record, Ireland are way ahead. In their last five meetings, the Irish won four times while Oman registered one victory that came in October 2019. Oman too have struggled with the bat, having posted just 103 and 120 for 9 against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka respectively. Making their fourth appearance in the T20 showpiece, Oman struggled against pace and extra bounce in Colombo. Oman need a strong batting effort from the likes of Jatinder Singh, Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza and big-hitter Vinayak Shukla. Mohammad Nadeeem, who didn't play their tournament opener against Zimbabwe, waged a lone battle against Sri Lanka, scoring a half-century but the effort was not enough. They will need to quickly address those frailties if they are to spring a surprise like they did on debut in 2016, when they defeated Ireland. Oman need a much-improved batting performance to give their bowling attack, their stronger suit, something to defend. The Teams (from): Ireland: Sam Toping, Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Ben Calitz, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Matthew Humphreys, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Harry Tector, Tim Tector, Lorcan Tucker (w), Ben White, Craig Young. Oman: Jatinder Singh (c), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza, Wasim Ali, Karan Sonavale, Jiten Ramanandi, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Sufyan Mehmood, Nadeem Khan, Shah Faisal, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohammad Nadeem, Jay Odedra, Ashish Odedara, Shafiq Jan. Match starts at 11am.