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In the end it will be Canada vs Oman in the Desert Cup final. Canada overcame a poor start to take their 2nd win over the hosts. The keys to victory were restricting Oman to 169 and a vital 89 from Aaron Johnson at a 217 strike rate. The tournament is excellent experience for a team starved of opportunities save for ICC qualifiers. The final should be another close affair.

Shocker from Bahrain.

Canada win Desert Cup T20 in style. That was 3 victories over the hosts (who easily beat Canada last winter) and 6 wins out of 7. This is the most success Canada has ever had in a T20 series outside of the Americas. Bahrain and the Saudis may not have the consistency and depth of the top tier Associates but they played at a level well above most of the Americas. So the tournament marks a great accomplishment for Canada.

Standouts for Canada were Aaron Johnson with over 400 runs, Ammar Khalid with 12 wickets and the leadership of Saad bin Zafar. Many others also contributed. The team showed resilience and consistency they have often lacked. Hopefully, they can settle on a group to play the bulk of T20Is.

On to the one-day matches with Oman.

Johnson might get a few gigs based on this performance, however he runs like he's injured and he's a defensive liability. He fields with his feet for goodness sake! He cost two different overthrow runs by fielding with his feet. I also feel that Canada were very reliant on Johnson to score big. The others need to score some runs too. I suppose the pitches were made for batters but Thaker and Dutta were getting hammered.
I enjoyed these games because it was Canada playing but...people find this entertaining? Every third ball going to the boundary?
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the one days.

Canada take the 1st one-day against Oman by 84 runs. Canada is experimenting and did not field their best XI but still managed a comfortable win. It seems Oman also needs this series as they have not yet shown the form that got them to currently topping WC League 2 standings. They might be trying new players as well. Canada's tour is mutually beneficial.

I'm just watching the game. Thaker had an excellent game with a career best 75. I thought it was a long tail but Dutta hit 47 coming in at #8. I don't know what Ravinderpal Singh brings to the team. He usually gets out for low scores. I guess in T20 it is to score as big as possible as quickly as possible but in the 50 over game maybe he should bat later and have the same role.

^ There will have to be some decisions made for which players are suited to the shorter and longer formats. We'll have to see how Spoors and Kirton (has he made the trip to Oman?) play but they may not excel at T20. Likewise, Singh may not be the right fit for 50 over competition. We are developing a sufficiently large player pool that some can be allocated to the format in which they have shown consistent results.

Shocker from Canada today in the 2nd one day match. 97 all out. They were due for a let down but this was rather poor. Many failures with the bat. Still looking for players to step up and claim a more permanent place in the XI.

Armaan Kapoor was keeping in the 2nd one day game. Movva and Wijeyaratne fielding. Ravi Singh given out on an obvious bat-pad it seems to me. Nicholas Kirton a substitute fielder. A really good 9th wicket partnership between Ammar Khalid and Saad bin Zafar. They both defended their wicket and had really low strike rates to occupy the crease. I always wonder why tail enders can’t bat. So often the game is on the line.

Canada win the one-day series and complete a very successful tour of Oman. There are still some questions about the strongest team. This was the first tour for players like Aaron Johnson, Pargat Singh, Armaan Kapoor. Did they do sufficiently well to continue? Others like Rivinderpal Singh, Matthew Spoors and Shreyas Movva had mixed results. Nicholas Kirton did not bat at all. The team should be able to do the job in the Challenge League but who will take the field for the Qualifier Playoff?

It sounded from the interview with the Canada team manager that the team plan to be back in Oman to prepare for the Qualifier Playoff.