Marcus Stoinis smacked a quick-fire unbeaten half-century and claimed three wickets as Australia began their T20 World Cup campaign with a comprehensive 39-run victory against Oman at the Kensington Oval on Thursday.
Stoinis helped Australia recover from a top-order slide with a brutal unbeaten 67-run knock off 36 balls to help them post 164/5 in the company of David Warner (56). He then produced figures of 3-0-19-3 as the 2021 champions grabbed two points.
Oman tried to take the fight to the opposition but their lack of experience showed as they could manage only 125/9 in 20 overs.
Oman were pegged back when Nathan Ellis (2/28) and Mitchell Starc (2/20) struck once each inside the first three overs.
Starc produced a vicious inswinger on the third ball of Oman’s innings which hit Pratik Athavale (0) on the pads, but Australia were forced to take a DRS review after their appeal was declined on the field.
Oman then reviewed unsuccessfully when Ellis pinned Kashyap Prajapati (7) in front of the wickets for the second wicket.