Oman clinched the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier title after they defeated Nepal in the Super Over in a thrilling final at the TU Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, Kathmandu on Sunday.

Having already secured their spots in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup following their respective semi-final victories, both Nepal and Oman were playing for the championship title.

Nepal opted to bat first and posted 184-6 in the allotted 20 overs after captain Rohit Paudel and Gulsan Jha scored half centuries.

But a late rally from Mahran Khan (10 runs off three balls) and Mohammad Nadeem (24 runs off nine balls) helped the visitors tie the see-saw contest forcing the Super Over.

Aqib Ilyas took one run and Naseem Khusi smacked three sixes off Abinash Bohara’s Super Over to post 21 without losing any wicket.

Kushal Malla and Jha could only manage 10-1 in reply after Bilal Khan dismissed Kushal Bhurtel in the first ball.

Earlier, Nepal started badly and were reeling at 60-4 in the 10th over after losing Aasif Sheikh (6), Sundeep Jora (10), Bhurtel (31) and Kushal Malla (3).

But Paudel played not out 52 off 37 balls and Jha made 54 off 25 balls in their 78-run stand for the fifth wicket to guide Nepal to a fighting total.

Bilal took 3-26 including the wickets of Aasif, Jha and Bibek Yadav.

Aqib returned the match figures of 2-22.

In the chase, player of the match Kashyap Prajapati scored 63 runs off 52 balls and played a 67-run partnership with Aqib for the second wicket to give Oman a solid start after opener Athavale departed with a cheap seven.

Aqib fell to Jha for 33 in the fourth ball of the tenth over and Prajapati was caught by Paudel off Bohara in the 17th over, an over after captain Zeeshan Maqsood walked back to the pavilion adding 26.

There were still hopes Nepal would avenge their group stage defeat but Mehran hit a six and a four and Nadeem smacked two fours off Karan KC in the 18th over to give Oman a lift.

Nadeem then hit two more fours off Bohara to push the contest to a last-over drama.

Lamichhane did his best removing Ayaan Khan and Shakeel Ahmed to contain the Oman chase but Nadeem took a four in the fifth ball and a one off the last ball to tie the match.

Aqib was declared player of the series for his 106 runs and 10 wickets.

The next checkpoint for both Nepal and Oman will be the T20 World Cup, which will be held across the United States and West Indies in July next year.

Nepal defeated the UAE by eight wickets in the semi-finals on Friday to book their ticket to the World Cup the second time, after making their debut in the 2014 edition in Bangladesh.

Oman will be playing their third World Cup.

Eighteen teams have now qualified for the 2024 T20 World Cup—the first to be expanded to 20 teams.

The West Indies and the US qualified as hosts.

Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka qualified as the top eight teams in the 2022 edition of the competition.

Afghanistan and Bangladesh sealed their spots as the two next-highest-ranked teams in the format.

Ireland and Scotland qualified from the Europe region qualifier, while Papua New Guinea made it from the East Asia-Pacific region and Canada from the Americas region.

The final two spots at the World Cup will be decided through the Africa qualifier, which will conclude at the end of the month.