Namibia kick off World Cup in style with famous upset
Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo show spirit and skill to hand Sri Lanka a heavy defeat
Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo show spirit and skill to hand Sri Lanka a heavy defeat
Scorer: Venkat Raghav | Commentator: Madushka Balasuriya
And on that note, it's goodbye from myself, Ashish and the team. But don't go too far, Netherlands are just about to take on UAE and you can catch all the action right over here. Sri Lanka will be in action once again on Tuesday, as will Namibia. Until then, ciao!
Winning Captain Gerhard Erasmus: "It's been an incredible journey, last year was exciting for us and we've now topped that with a great win. Though there's still a lot of work to do for the rest of the tournament. But yeah it's been a historic day for us. [On head coach Pierre de Bruyne] He turned this whole ship around for us in 2019, he's instilled a culture in this team. One that's truly a winning culture and one that sticks together. With the limited resources that we have I guess you really have to run a tight ship and I don't think there's anyone else who could run such tight ship like he has done over last three years. And days like this are payback for his effort."
Losing Captain Dasun Shanaka: "I think the surface played really well but the execution was not there when it comes to the bowling. We're concerned whether our bowlers bowled in the right areas as compared to the Namibian bowlers. We also wanted the first three batters to continue in the first play, so losing three wickets in the first powerplay put us out of the game. [Next game] the plan should be simple, not to do anything special. It's about process. When chasing 160 you need good partnerships at the top and numbers three and four to kick in. The bowlers especially they need to hit their areas."
Namibia now have more wins vs full-member teams (IRE 2021 & SL 2022) in T20 World Cups than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. And the same number of wins as Afghanistan and Ireland.
Mustafa Moudi: "Fun Fact: This is the Biggest Win for Namibia against a side that features in the Top 20 in the ICC T20I Ranking. All their higher margin wins have come against Botswana, Kenya and Uganda !!"
Player of the Match Jan Frylinck: "I'm a little bit speechless at the moment. What we've just achieved is above what we thought we could do and I'm very just excited at this point in time. JJ just came in and took the pressure off me by hitting a couple of boundaries, and then myself and JJ just got us to a competitive total and the bowlers were just great after that. [The surface] it was a little bit two-faced, a little hard to get away. Other than that it stayed rather true. [With the bowling] just stuck to our plans, hit good lengths and let them make the mistakes."
6.22pm Well, who would have seen this coming? Incredible stuff from Namibia, who have not only secured a historic win but also struck a heavy blow to Sri Lanka's qualifying hopes by virtue of denting their net run rate. The win was set up by a fantastic 70-run 7th wicket stand between Frylinck and Smit, before the bowlers just chipped away with unerring consistency. Sri Lanka's batters, whether it was impatience or complacency, were just unable to get away the bowlers. And they paid for it with their wickets, with several batters guilty of holing out trying to go big. As it is, Sri Lanka - like they had to at the Asia Cup - will need to win their next two games but also hope that other results go their way to qualify. As for Namibia, they are well and truly in the qualification driving seat.
PVD Chameera c Erasmus b Wiese 8 (20m 15b 0x4 0x6) SR: 53.33
And how many players have scored a century and taken a wicket in all three international formats?
Captain Gerhard Erasmus says the experience of the last T20 World Cup gave them an idea of the skills required at this level
Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo show spirit and skill to hand Sri Lanka a heavy defeat
Captain Dasun Shanaka not happy with his bowlers after Namibia's match-turning late blitz with the bat
The left-arm seamer sustained a quadriceps tear on the eve of Sri Lanka's first match of the tournament
First Round Group A | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
SL | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.667 |
NED | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -0.162 |
NAM | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0.73 |
UAE | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -1.235 |
First Round Group B | |||||
Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
ZIM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.2 |
IRE | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.105 |
SCOT | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0.304 |
WI | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -0.563 |
Group 1 | |||||
Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
NZ | 5 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2.113 |
ENG | 5 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 0.473 |
AUS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 7 | -0.173 |
SL | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -0.422 |
IRE | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | -1.615 |
AFG | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | -0.571 |
Group 2 | |||||
Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
IND | 5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 1.319 |
PAK | 5 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 1.028 |
SA | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0.874 |
NED | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -0.849 |
BAN | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -1.176 |
ZIM | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | -1.138 |