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4 min readUpdated: Feb 20, 2026 11:54 PM IST
Oman's players congratulate Australia's captain Mitchell Marsh, centre, after winning the T20 World Cup cricket match between Australia and Oman in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)
The result was never really in question in Australia’s final match of the T20 World Cup this year, as they demolished Oman by nine wickets in Pallekele on Friday. But the tones of player of the match Adam Zampa and captain Mitchell Marsh’s post-match interviews could only be described as funereal. The word ‘disappointed’ was uttered a handful of times, with Zampa adding that he found it hard to believe Australia are flying back home tomorrow.
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After defeats to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka ended their campaign before Super 8s, Australia had nothing left to play for but turned up with a professional display. Zampa’s 4-wicket haul saw Oman get bowled out for 104 and Marsh then batted with the urgency of someone who just wanted to get the job done quickly and go home. Chasing a modest target of 105 for victory, the skipper ruthlessly dispatched Oman’s bowlers to all corners of the park, bringing up his half-century off just 26 balls inside the first powerplay.
“I reckon I’d probably be feeling exactly the same if I got none for tonight,” Zampa said in the press conference. “Feeling pretty hollow, to be honest. Again, you’d prefer to have the wickets than not, but it’s probably the worst-feeling four-for I’ve ever got.”
The leg-spinner also said the dressing room was largely quiet leading into this match, with an agonising wait for the dead rubber after knowing their fates were sealed when Zimbabwe’s match against Ireland was washed out.
“There hasn’t been a lot said yet. I think there will be. We’ll dissect it, that’s for sure. But currently, there’s not much you can say, particularly when we have one game left and four days to kill. Yeah, get through this one and then we’ll get home and I’m sure there will be a review of it,” Zampa said.
After Australia’s under-par performances in the two defeats, there has been a suggestion that the cricketing powerhouses don’t care much for the men’s T20 World Cup, a tournament they have won only just once in the past, unlike their imperious record in ODI World Cups and Test cricket. Zampa, however, rubbished that theory.
“It’s totally false, yeah. The time that the coaches and the staff put into how we’re going to play our T20 cricket and who’s going to play each role and our preparation is, I think they’d probably put as much time into that than they would for Test cricket. I think, potentially even more because T20 cricket, one-day cricket, everyone’s a lot tighter in the world, whereas Test cricket, Australia and top two or three teams are quite dominant, so I don’t think the work is needed as much, whereas with this format in particular, it’s a lot tighter. So the work is definitely there,” Zampa said.
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But the 33-year-old admitted that the Australian fan base might be tuned in to the kind of work they have put in, because the team plays a large part of their white-ball cricket away from the public glare at home.
“I think the Australian public struggles with the fact that they don’t get to see much of what much white ball cricket play. We play like three to six games in the summer. We do a lot of our work away from Australian time, so they don’t get to see the way that we kind of play and have prepared for these World Cups. And we’ve done so – played a lot of really good cricket up until now, so it’s disappointing that it’s ended like this but I think that the work and the time is as much effort as the other formats.”
Brief scores: Oman 104 in 16.2 overs (Wasim Ali 32, Adam Zampa 4/21) lost to Australia 108/1 in 9.4 overs (Mitch Marsh 64*, Shakeel Ahmed 1/29) by 9 wickets
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