Hosts UAE, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal and Singapore will contest from February 24 to March 2 for a spot at the ICC Under-19 Men's Cricket World Cup in 2024 scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka.
UAE qualified for the U19 T20 World Cup with a dominant five-match clean-sweep of the Asia qualifiers earlier this year and managed to pick up a victory over Malaysia at the recent Women's Asia Cup in Bangladesh.
At the OCA 2 ground, Oman skipper Arjun Dhiman elected to bowl first after winning the toss and his bowlers justified the decision as Saudi Arabia batters were left struggling against some tidy bowling. Saudi openers were back in the hut in five overs with the team's total only 13.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Nepal lost Kiran Kunwar, run out for a duck, in the first over. Anjali Bishowkarma (33) and Ashma Magar (26) made a partnership to weather the new-ball impact.
Aleena Khan scalped three wickets and scored an unbeaten 41 in a chase of 115. The win meant Qatar avoided the wooden spoon as Bhutan remained winless.
After choosing to bat, Thailand struggled as they lost four wickets in the powerplay for 22 runs. Phannita Maya held fort by scoring a 39-ball 40, a knock that featured six boundaries.
Nepal won the toss and having put Thailand in to bat, their bowlers bowled well to concede only three boundaries in the entire innings to restrict them to 89-7 in 20 overs.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Bhutan skipper Ngawang Choden struck a pair of early boundaries to propel Bhutan to 20 for no loss at the end of four overs.
Gaur was instrumental in restricting hosts Malaysia to a total of 33-9 before the UAE's batters knocked off the target in four overs to set up a 9-wicket win at the UKM-YSD Cricket Oval.