The great history of spectacular upsets in T20 cricket had another chapter added as Namibia secured a 55-run win over Sri Lanka in the opening match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Kardinia Park, Geelong, on Sunday.
After big-hitting fireworks from Jan Frylinck (44) and JJ Smit (31 not out) helped Namibia post a competitive 163/7 in 20 overs, the bowlers produced a superb collective show, mixing their fuller and short lengths well to bowl out Sri Lanka for 108 in 19 overs for a historic win over a major cricketing nation.
Frylinck backed up his superb batting performance with a brilliant 2/26 in his four overs to be adjudged Player of the Match in Namibia’s famous victory and ease their path towards a Super 12 qualification while causing a huge dent in Sri Lanka’s net run rate. Apart from him, David Wiese, Bernard Scholtz, and Ben Shikongo took two wickets apiece.
In defense of 163/7 on a two-paced pitch, Wiese brought the first breakthrough for Namibia, as Kusal Mendis top-edged a pull on his short ball to the keeper in the second over. Shikongo broke the back of Sri Lanka’s innings with his back-to-back double strikes in a maiden fourth over.
While Pathum Nissanka holed out to mid-on, Danushka Gunathilaka poked at a nipping-away delivery and gave an outer edge behind to keeper to depart for a golden duck. Post-power-play, Dhananjaya de Silva was next to depart, mistiming a flick to the long leg off Frylinck.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Dasun Shanaka added 34 runs for the fifth wicket before the former mistimed a slog to deep mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Scholtz. Wanindu Hasaranga was next to fall, slog-sweeping straight to deep mid-wicket off Scholtz. When Shanaka fell by top-edging a slog to keep off Frylinck, a victory for Namibia was just inevitable.
Earlier, electing to bowl first, Sri Lanka made good use of the breeze and tennis-ball bounce offered by a two-paced pitch with some tight bowling to leave Namibia in trouble at 93/6 in 14.2 overs. But Smit (31 not out) joined Frylinck (44) at the crease and the duo added 70 runs in the next 34 balls of their seventh-wicket partnership to take Namibia to 163/7.
Namibia had a shaky start, losing both of their openers Michael van Lingen and Divan la Cock in the first three overs. Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton made a sparkling 20 before falling to a wonderful catch from Kusal Mendis with the score being 43/3 at the end of the power-play.
Stephen Baard (26) and captain Gerhard Erasmus (20) were involved in a fifty partnership but were dismissed in quick succession in the middle overs. When fast-bowling all-rounder David Wiese perished for a golden duck against Maheesh Theekshana (1/23), it looked like Namibia would crumble before Frylinck and Smit engineered a rescue act.
The duo targeted Sri Lanka’s wayward bowling at the back end of the innings by targeting the shorter side of the ground for boundaries and ran hard for a lot of twos with the help of the longer side.
For Sri Lanka, star leg-spinner Hasaranga (1/27) bowled well during the middle overs. The economy rates of Theekshana and Hasaranga were below seven, while the economy rates of Dushmantha Chameera (1/39), Pramod Madushan (2/37), and Chamika Karunaratne (1/36) were above nine. But what the 2014 T20 World Cup champions would rue the most will be the 68 runs conceded in the last five overs which played a crucial role in a famous win for Namibia.
Brief Scores: Namibia 163/7 in 20 overs (Jan Frylinck 44, JJ Smit 31 not out; Pramod Madushan 2/37, Maheesh Theekshana 1/23) beat Sri Lanka 108 all out in 19 overs (Dasun Shanaka 29, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 20; David Wiese 2/16, Bernard Scholtz 2/18) by 55 runs.