USA Breaks India’s 40-Year-Old Record, Defends Lowest-Ever ODI Total Against Oman

USA Breaks India’s 40-Year-Old Record: The Indian-born left-arm Nosthush Kenjige produced his career best performance with the ball for America as the country broke a long world record previously held by India in defending the lowest total in ODI cricket. The USA defended 122 and won against Oman by 57 runs in a Cricket World Cup League 2 match played in Al Amerat, Oman. This is the lowest ever defended total in men's ODIs in a full completed ODI of 50 overs, thus excluding matches with a revised target or reduced overs.

Earlier, India boasted of an even lesser figure to defend- 125 runs, set against Pakistan in Rothmans Four-Nations Cup in Sharjah way back in 1985. In that match, India bowled Pakistan out for 87 to win by 38 runs.

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The first-ever case of men's ODIs was set after 4671 matches in which not a single fast bowler delivered a ball. Spinners were the nine bowlers used in the entire game.

The match would go down as an absolute record-breaker for spinners in an ODI as 19 wickets fell, equalling the record for the maximum number of wickets taken in an ODI by spinners. This happened in an ODI in 2011 between Bangladesh and Pakistan, Chattogram. The best performance in this match was Nosthush Kenjige's 5/11 from 7.3 overs. Oman was bowled out for just 65 in 25.3 overs, registering its lowest-ever score in the men's international format.

This makes the total runs scored by both teams-consistently 187 runs across 61 overs-the second-lowest aggregate in ODI history for a game where both teams got out. The only one less came in a 2014 ODI between India and Bangladesh, with a total of 163 runs over 41 overs.

Dominate spinners and low-scoring games: these have been among the glowing features depicted in this tournament at Al Amerat ground, and especially in the case of matches involving Oman. In the eight games played by Oman here, the team batting first has always been all out for less than 170. On the contrary, the other four matches had totals exceeding 240 runs.

The last match that happened in Al Amerat on Sunday saw Oman fail to chase down their target of 96 runs against Namibia, losing eight wickets. Ironically, JJ Smit was the only bowler in that match who bowled just one over. Al Amerat has hosted three of the four ODIs where spinners have gotten breakthroughs of 17 or more wickets.

Kenjige took 5 wickets for only 11 runs, building pressure on the hosts right from the start and guaranteeing their disintegration. Equally vital was Milind Kumar's off-spin (2/17) for trapping Oman captain Jatinder Singh for just 7 runs as the chase of Oman was never inspiring; rather, the men from the Sultanate surrendered under pressure.

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Supporting Kenjige were Harmeet Singh (1/25) and Yasir Mohammed (2/10), with the latter bringing the match to a rapid closure by dismissing Oman's No. 11 batsman, Siddharth Bukkapatnam. The whole bowling effort by the USA spinners was brutally clinical in ensuring the skittle downs of Oman at a horrendously less score.

On the batting front, Oman restricted the USA to merely 35.3 overs. Monank Patel, USA's captain, was another casualty of a duck among a host of five Americans who were falling in the first 13 overs. Despite the struggles, Aaron Jones (16) and Sanjay Krishnamurthi (16) fought to extend their team's total. It would be Milind Kumar, however, who stood firm, top-scoring with an unbeaten 47 that included six boundaries as the USA cleared the three-figure hurdle.

The main bowler for the hosts, Oman's Shakeel Ahmad, was the one who took 3/20, but ultimately, it was the USA spinners who reigned supreme and ensured a complete victory in this historic, spin-dominated clash.

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