In the 11th match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and chose to bat against Namibia at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Ireland, which lost their last encounter with Sri Lanka, made no changes to their lineup for this crucial match.
“We quite like the idea of getting some runs on the board in a big game and hopefully putting pressure on them. Should be an okay pitch but we are not 100 per cent sure how it will play. We watched a lot of IPL here, the night games had a bit of dew. We were up against a pretty good Sri Lankan team, that can happen. We have been in good form,” said Balbirnie at the toss.
On the other hand, Namibia made one change in their team as Pikky Ya France came in place of Stephan Baard.
“Obviously it is a new wicket and we are looking to take information from their batting innings to ours. With a nice batting line-up, we like to chase. We have great momentum from the previous game, really well played and try to bring that here. The Irish boys will be feeling the pressure more than us today,” said Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus at the toss.
Playing XI:
Ireland: Paul Stirling, Kevin O Brien, Andrew Balbirnie(c), Gareth Delany, Curtis Campher, Harry Tector, Neil Rock(w), Mark Adair, Simi Singh, Craig Young, Joshua Little.
Namibia: Zane Green(w), Craig Williams, Michael van Lingen, Gerhard Erasmus(c), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck, Pikky Ya France, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz.
(With IANS inputs)