The T20 World Cup in Australia saw one of the biggest upset in the opening day of the tournament as minnows Namibia outclassed Asian Champions Sri Lanka by 55 runs on Sunday. Batting first Namibia piled a challenging 163/7 on the board in 20 overs. In response, Sri Lanka were bundled out for 108 with an over to spare.
Jan Frylinck emerged as the highest run-scorer for Namibia, as he scored a 28-ball 44 before getting run-out. However, it was JJ Smit’s late blitz, which made the difference. Smit scored an unbeaten 31 off 16 balls, which featured two boundaries and the same number of maximums.
Among the bowlers four Namibia bowlers scalped two wickets each. Ben Shikongo, who was one of the bowler who picked two wickets, did it in consecutive balls, removing opener Pathum Nissanka on 9(10) and Danushka Gunathilaka on a first ball duck.
Soon after the contest, legends of the game hailed Namibia’s efforts and batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was one of them. The former India cricketer took to Twitter and wrote: “Namibia has told the cricketing world today… “Nam” yaad rakhna!”
The win over Sri Lanka is Namibia’s biggest win in the format. Their skipper Gerhard Erasmus termed the result ‘historic’ at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Incredible journey, last year was a special experience for us,” Erasmus said during the post-match presentation. “We’ve started a great win, but lot of work to do throughout this tournament still. It’s been a historic day for us. The opening day has been quite special but we want to kick on from here and qualify for the Super 12 stage.”
Namibia are placed alongside Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and UAE in Group A of first round. They will next play Netherlands on Tuesday.
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