Hello and welcome to the coverage of T20 World Cup's final group stage game between Australia and Oman at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy.
Australia will look to end one of their most calamitous World Cup campaigns on a positive note when they meet minnows Oman in an inconsequential final outing.
Australia, the limited overs titans with six ODI and one T20I World Cup titles, were eliminated in the group stage after Tuesday's game between Zimbabwe and Ireland in Kandy was washed out.
It paved the way for the much-improved African side's entry into the Super Eights from Group B along with tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka.
Crippled by injuries, form slump
An injury-ravaged Australia showed glimpses of their batting prowess in the first half of their innings in the loss to Sri Lanka, but it was their shock defeat to Zimbabwe that really blew their campaign apart, forcing the administrators back home to announce a "forensic review" of their performance once the players return to the country.
The forgettable campaign was marked by injuries to key players, poor form, and baffling selection calls. The result was that the 2021 winners failed to progress beyond the group stage for the first time since 2009.
Australia though, despite the absence of their star pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, entered the tournament as one of the favourites, but things went downhill quickly following the reverse against Zimbabwe.
Australia will enter the game vs Oman as overwhelming favourites despite their disappointing campaign, which saw them win only one of their three matches so far, a 67-run victory over Ireland.
In the last meeting between the two countries in the 2024 edition of the tournament in the Americas, Australia emerged winners by 39 runs, and quite a few players of the current squads were part of that match from both teams.
Oman aim to impress
On the other hand, Oman too have struggled significantly throughout this tournament, losing all three of their group matches by big margins.
Men like Jatinder Singh and Sufyan Mehmood will be hoping to leave an impression as they take to the field for one last time in the tournament.
Teams (from):
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (Captain), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (Wicketkeeper), Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Steve Smith.
Oman: Jatinder Singh (Captain), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza, Wasim Ali, Karan Sonavale, Jiten Ramanandi, Vinayak Shukla (Wicketkeeper), Sufyan Mehmood, Nadeem Khan, Shah Faisal, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohammad Nadeem, Jay Odedra, Ashish Odedara, Shafiq Jan.