Oman captain Aqib Ilyas spoke after their defeat against Australia in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. This is their second consecutive defeat, which means their chances of qualifying for the Super 8 is very bleak.

Australia posted a competitive 164/5 in their quota of 20 overs, thanks to fifties from Marcus Stoinis and David Warner. However, this proved to be more than enough for Oman, as they only managed to score 125/9 in their 20 overs, resulting in a 39 runs defeat for Oman.

Aqib Ilyas mentioned that one catch drop messed up their plans in their bowling, which caused everything to go south from then.

"Playing against a top side today was a great experience, especially following on from the Super Over last game. They played really well, but credit goes to our bowlers. Our bowlers can do really well on turning tracks and you could see one catch was messed up and then the over went for big runs. And then from there Stoinis performed. But credit to our boys, well done. 

When asked regarding what Aqib said regarding the Australian side, this is what he had to say.

"The thing with the media is that they don't show the positive things we said about them, they only show the negatives. Obviously they're top players, we respect them as cricketers like we respect everyone, but when we come out on to the field no one is bigger than you. These wickets are tricky and it's not easy for anyone. For the first 14-15 overs we had a good grip on the game, but one fielding mishap and the game was taken away."

Aqib continued," We might have messed up the execution a bit. He was hitting straight pretty easily, and after hitting a couple of sixes I went to my bowlers and said it wasn't working. Because the yorkers were not landing as the ball was hard to grip with the sweat dripping on it. So then we went with a plan to bowl slower ones, shorter and let him try and clear the longer 74 metre boundary. That worked but by then the game was going away from us."