‘What a start for Namibia’ – Twitter goes bonkers as Namibia hammer Sri Lanka in the first game of the 20-20 World Cup
David Weise picked up two wickets for Namibia in his four overs.
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Oct 16, 2022 1:49 pm
Namibia (Source: Twitter)
After two years of waiting, the 20-20 World Cup finally came to Australia in 2022. The first match of the 20-20 World Cup qualifiers between Sri Lanka and Namibia was held in Simonds Stadium in Geelong.Sri Lankawon the toss and chose to bowl. Namibia had a poor start, as they lost Michael Van Lingen and Divan La Cock to Dushmantha Chameera and Pramod Madushan, respectively. Wicketkeeper batter Loftie Eaton came and scored a bright and breezy 20 off 12 balls, with one four and two sixes, but he was shown the door by Chamika Karunaratne.
Stephan Baard scored 26 off 24 balls, with two fours, but was scalped up by Pramod Madhushan. Nambia was getting contributions from some batters, but none of them could convert them into a big score. When David Weise was dismissed by Maheesh Theekshana, with the score at 93-6, things looked bad for Namibia.
Smit and Frylink partner up to change the course of the game for Namibia
However, they got themselves back into the game with counterattacking contributions from Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit. The duo added a 70-run partnership off just 34 balls for the seventh wicket. Frylinck scored a superb 44 off 28 balls and Smit scored 31 not out off just 16 balls, with two fours and two sixes. This allowed Namibia to get to a competitive total of 163 in their 20 overs. Madushan was the pick of the bowlers for the Lankans as he scalped two wickets, conceding 37 runs in his four overs.
In the second innings, Sri Lanka fell off their wheels as they lost a wicket for just 12 runs on the board. They lost another wicket at the score of 21. From that point on, the island nation fell like a house of cards as they crumbled to 108-10 in just 19 overs. David Wiese, Bernard Scholtz, and Jan Frylinck picked up two wickets each from their respective spells, and JJ Smit picked up the wicket of Chamika Karunaratne in his three-over spells.
This was a comprehensive win of 55 runs for the Men from Africa, who have started the 20-20 World Cup qualifiers on a terrific note. Sri Lanka’s qualification chances have suffered a major dent with this loss.
Twitter was abuzz, let us take a look at the reactions here-
Sri Lanka, Asia Cup winners, on the brink of massive setback against Namibia. Topsy rurvy start to the World Cup!
Who doesn’t love an @ICC event?!! Looks like we are literally going to have an upset in the first game. Asia Cup winners, 🇱🇰 may go down to Namibia 🇳🇦 WHAT..A..START!! 😱
Sri Lanka played poorly, obviously, but the story of the nqtch is how magnificently Namibia performed with bat, ball and in the field. Warning gong sounded for all teams in the WC that this is going to be a tough competition
Namibia have done it – one of the most famous victory in the history of Namibian cricket. Defeated Sri Lanka by 55 runs in the opening game of 2022 World Cup.
