Ireland qualify for T20 World Cup after Jersey upset Oman in Abu Dhabi

Starting the final day of the group stage needing a victory to secure qualification, Oman were tripped up by a resurgent Jersey side unlikely to make the play-offs even with a win due to their inferior net run-rate. A fluent start from Jersey openers Nick Ferraby and Nick Greenwood helped the Channel Islanders to 60 without loss in the eighth over before a flurry of wickets stalled their progress. Ferraby, a former housemate of England bowler Stuart Broad from their days at English county side Leicestershire, top-scored with 41 while a number of middle-order contributions carried Jersey through to a competitive, if not imposing, score of 141/7.

The Oman chase was doomed from the beginning. Three Dominic Blampied wickets in the second over sent their innings into disarray. Despite a masterful half-century from their captain Zeeshan Maqsood, his side were always behind the game as Jersey sealed a 14-run victory – their third triumph of the T20 World Cup Qualifier. For Oman, it meant they would finish the group stage on eight points, level with Ireland but below them in the table due to Ireland’s superior net run-rate.

Unless Canada or UAE won by an extraordinary margin in Sunday’s night game – UAE ultimately had a winning margin of 14 runs – Jersey’s win had sent Ireland to Australia for their sixth consecutive Men’s T20 World Cup. For Jersey, while they ended the group stage narrowly missing out on a play-off spot, it rounded off an impressive campaign for a young squad who only qualified for the Qualifier by the barest of margins themselves (possessing a 0.05 higher NRR than Germany in the ICC T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier).

Ireland join Papua New Guinea as one of the two automatic qualifiers for the T20 World Cup while Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland, Oman, UAE and Hong Kong will battle it out for the four remaining T20 World Cup spots in the play-offs which will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday.