Pakistan vs Oman Prediction: 5/6 Zaman the man…to get 25 runs

Jamie Pacheco previews Pakistan's opening match at the Asia Cup, up against Oman, played in Dubai on Friday with a start time of 15:30, and live on TNT Sports.  

One cricket tipster hasn't found too much of interest in the betting markets so just the one wager in this one as he gives us his top Pakistan vs Oman Prediction...  

*You can check out the Cricket Odds from all of our Cricket Betting markets over on betfred.com

Oman

Oman are ranked 20th in the T20I ICC rankings, one place above Uganda and one below Canada. This is their first appearance at an Asia Cup.  

Shakeel Ahmed makes an appearance in the Top 100 of the ICC rankings, coming in at 92 for best bowlers and 89 for all-rounders, so plenty is expected of him, but he's likely to make more of a contribution with the ball than the bat.  

Aqib Ilyas is ranked 30 on the all-rounders list but has been suspended by the Board over a pay dispute that essentially saw him go on strike, alongside 10 other players, including Zeeshan Maqsood, ranked the 47th best all-rounder in T20Is.  So, they'll have to do without those two and a load of other senior players, which isn't ideal.  

Skipper Jatinder Singh is quite capable at the top of the order with eight international T20 fifties.  

Pakistan  

It would have been an easy decision to make to recall Babar Azam and Mohmmad Rizwan at the eleventh hour for the Asia Cup after the two batters who had carried Pakistan for close to a decade in this format, had been left out of recent T20I squads.  

But no, they're sticking to their guns for the time being and instead going with youngsters like Saim Ayub and Hasan Nawaz, while veteran Fakhar Zaman, with an excellent strike rate of 135 in T20Is is included too, as they'll feel they need at least one batter in the Top 3 who likes to get on with it.  

Haris Rauf is also included in the squad and will form his usual potentially deadly partnership with Shaheen Shah Afridi.  

Another Nawaz, this one of the Mohmmad variety, took 5-19 in the final of that Series against Afghanistan and adds good balance to the side, as does Faheem Ahraf. Salman Agha leads the side.   

Pitch and conditions

We're in Dubai for this one. A reminder about the 'dew factor':  there's normally plenty of it during the second innings of matches here, making bowlers and spinners in particular, struggle to grip the ball. Most sides will want to chase here.  

There's always something in this wicket so if it's Pakistan batting first, they might not necessarily get to 180, even against limited bowling options.  

Match Winner Odds

Pakistan are never too far away from a horror show in a match they should have won comfortably, and that seems to be particularly the case at major tournaments, that Super Over defeat to the USA over in New York last year, just the latest of those.   

And they may well have been contenders for another of those…had they been up against slightly stronger opposition. But Oman aren't great to begin with and even less so now that they lost so many important players over that money dispute. The 'shock' could be on in a few days' time when they play the UAE, but their odds of 1/40 (97.6%) here aren't ones to back or oppose.  

*For all the latest and live Pakistan vs Oman Odds then head over to betfred.com 

Fakhar Zaman Runs  

I'd love to say this is a match full of great betting opportunities where the hard part is keeping it to one or two. It's not. There's nothing in the match odds market, while the Pakistan top bowler market is a minefield with four or five players at similar odds with similar chances.  

Oman players? They haven't played T20Is since the start of the year and after all those players were suspended, it's hard to even know how they're likely to line-up.  

If I was to play the Pakistan top bat market, I just about make a case for skipper Salman Agha, expected to come in at four, at 5/1, purely on price in relation to his ability.  But then again, if they're chasing 120 or so, he won't have much of a chance.  

Instead, I'll go with big-hitting Zaman to score at least 25 runs at 5/6.  

His career average in T20Is is just below that but the vast majority of his matches were against far better sides than this one.  

He showed he was in decent form over the last week or so with scores of 25, 77 not out and 27 in his last three knocks. Crucial to our bet is that batting at three we'd have to be very unlucky for him to not face enough balls to get there, his excellent strike rate of 132 meaning he'd only needed to face 20 deliveries or so on average to get to 25 runs. He's not the worst shout at 14/5 for top bat but it's not impossible one of the openers is already on 50-plus by the time he comes out to bat, so we'll just focus on the powerful left-hander.