Colombo, February 14: Oman’s veteran all-rounder Aamir Kaleem has made history by becoming the oldest player to score a half-century in the T20 World Cup. On Saturday, he achieved this milestone at the Singhalese Sports Club against Ireland at the age of 44 years and 86 days.
Kaleem scored his half-century in just 28 balls, surpassing the previous record held by his teammate Mohammad Nadeem, who scored a half-century at the age of 43 years and 161 days in the same World Cup against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya ranks third on this list, having scored a half-century at the age of 39 years and 345 days against the West Indies in the 2009 T20 World Cup.
Recently, Kaleem became the oldest player to participate in the T20 World Cup, breaking the record of Hong Kong’s former captain Ryan Campbell (44 years and 30 days) during the 2016 edition. Kaleem was part of Oman’s first T20 World Cup team in 2016 and has participated in several Asia Cup qualifiers and World Cup qualification campaigns, amassing 718 runs and taking 48 wickets in 54 T20 matches.
In the match against Ireland, Oman chased a target of 236 runs, with Kaleem scoring 50 runs off 29 balls, including 2 sixes and 5 fours. He started his innings with a four off the second ball and a six off the fourth. Despite wickets falling at the other end, Kaleem held firm and added 73 runs with Hamad Mirza. Unfortunately, he could not convert his innings into a bigger score and was dismissed by Barry McCarthy’s fast bouncer.
Oman’s team fell short in their chase, collapsing for 139 runs in 18 overs. Kaleem was the only batsman to score a half-century, while Hamad contributed 46 runs off 37 balls with 7 boundaries. Sufyan Mahmood added 10 runs to the total.
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