Ajay Vrajlal Lalcheta (born 22 October 1983) is an Indian-born

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who plays for the

Oman national cricket team The Oman national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Oman and is governed by the Oman Cricket Board, which became an Affiliate Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2000, and gained Associate status in 2014 ...

. Lalcheta played underage cricket in India before emigrating to

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

, making his debut for the Omani national side at the

2011 ACC Twenty20 Cup The 2011 ACC Twenty20 Cup was played between 3–11 December 2011 in Nepal. The tournament acted as a qualifying tournament for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. The tournament was won by defending champions Afghanistan who defeated Hong Kon ...

. He played five matches at the 2012 World Twenty20 Qualifier in the United Arab Emirates, which were accorded full

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

status.

Early career

Lalcheta played several seasons for Saurashtra underage representative sides. He is a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and left-arm orthodox spinner. He made his debut for the Saurashtra under-16s in November 1998, aged 15, in the 1998–99

Vijay Merchant Trophy Vijay Merchant Trophy is an annual junior under 16 domestic cricket tournament of India. Board of Control for Cricket in India, the national governing body of sport of cricket in India, organise it. It is named after former legendry international ...

. In that tournament, he scored 187 runs, behind only Mahesh Bhutia (204 runs) for Saurashtra, most of which came in an innings of 87 against the Maharashtra under-16s. Lalcheta went on to play at under-19 and under-22 level for Saurashtra, with his last match in an Indian domestic tournament coming in November 2005, in the C. K. Nayudu Trophy.Miscellaneous Matches played by Ajay Lalcheta (53)
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 February 2015.

Oman career

After emigrating to

, Lalcheta made his debut for the national side at the

, where

finished third to qualify for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

. At the ACC Twenty20 Cup, he took eight wickets at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 12.00, behind only Aamer Kaleem and Hemal Mehta (10 wickets each) for Oman. Against

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, the eventual winner of the tournament, he took 4/13 from 3.3 overs, though the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award went to Afghan

Hamid Hassan Hamid Hassan ( ps, ; born 1 June 1987) is an Afghan cricketer. He is a right-arm fast bowler and a right-handed batsman who mainly plays as a bowler. He made his international debut for Afghanistan in April 2009. Early life and career Hassan ...

, who helped bowl Oman out for 77. At the World Twenty20 Qualifier, Oman lost all seven of its group matches to finish bottom of Group B, but defeated

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

in the 15th-place playoff. Lalcheta played in only five matches at the tournament – he was first included in the team for its second match, against

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

, but after playing in the next match, against

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

, made no further appearances until towards the tournament's end, playing in the final two group matches against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and then in the 15th-place playoff. Lalcheta bowled 17 overs at the tournament, taking four wickets at an average of 25.25. His best figures, 2/13 from four overs, came against

, and included the wickets of veterans Gerrie Snyman and

Nicolaas Scholtz Nicolaas Scholtz (born November 5, 1986) is a Namibian cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a leg-break bowler. He represented the Namibian cricket team in five Youth One-Day Internationals during the Under-19s World Cup of 2006. Scholtz ...

. Only Hemal Mehta (12 wickets), Zeeshan Siddiqui (8), and Rajesh Ranpura (5) took more wickets for Oman at the tournament. Since the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, Lalcheta has featured regularly for Oman in ACC and ICC limited-overs tournaments, including the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

and

2015 ACC Twenty20 Cup The 2015 ACC Twenty20 Cup was an international cricket tournament that was held between 25 and 30 January 2015 in the United Arab Emirates. Oman won the round-robin tournament and qualified for the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, along with Af ...

s, the

2014 ACC Premier League The three-tier ACC Premier League tournament has evolved from the former two-tier ACC Trophy cricket competition. The 2014–15 season started with top tier tournament which was held in Malaysia in May. It gives Associate and Affiliate members ...

and the 2013 WCL Division Three and 2014 WCL Division Four tournaments. Notable performances have included 4/22 against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in the 2014 ACC Premier League, 5/20 against

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

in the 2014 WCL Division Four tournament, and a man-of-the-match 36 runs and 3/22 against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

in the 2015 ACC Twenty20 Cup. Lalcheta's 12 wickets in the 2014 WCL Division Four tournament were second only to

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

's Sharul Nizam (16 wickets) overall. Against Denmark in that tournament, he ran out Shehzad Ahmed while he was backing up, providing one of the few instances of "

Mankading Run out is a method of dismissal in cricket, governed by Law 38 of the Laws of Cricket. A run out usually occurs when the batsmen are attempting to run between the wickets, and the fielding team succeed in getting the ball to one wicket bef ...

" in an international competition.

International career

He made his

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

debut for Oman against Hong Kong on 21 November 2015. He was named captain of

for 2016 ICC World Cricket League Division Five replacing Sultan Ahmed who captained them in 2016 ICC World Twenty20. He made his List A debut for Oman in their three-match series against the United Arab Emirates in October 2016. In January 2018, he was named in Oman's squad for the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament. In August 2018, he was named in Oman's squad for the

2018 Asia Cup Qualifier The 2018 Asia Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that was held in Malaysia from 29 August to 6 September 2018. The event served as the qualifier for the 2018 Asia Cup. The top two teams from the group stage met in the final, with the winner ...

tournament. In December 2018, he was named in Oman's team for the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup. In July 2019, he was named in Oman's One Day International (ODI) squad for the

2019 Scotland Tri-Nation Series The 2019 Scotland Tri-Nation Series was the first round of the 2019–2023 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 cricket tournament and took place in Scotland in August 2019. It was a tri-nation series between Oman, Papua New Guinea and the Scotland cri ...

. He made his ODI debut for Oman, against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, on 18 August 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lalcheta, Ajay 1989 births Living people Indian cricketers Saurashtra cricketers Indian emigrants to Oman Indian expatriates in Oman Omani cricketers Oman One Day International cricketers Oman Twenty20 International cricketers People from Porbandar Omani cricket captains