GEELONG, Oct 17: Namibia caused a massive upset on the opening day of the T20 World Cup with a 55-run win over 2014 champions and reigning Asia Cup winners Sri Lanka in a group A match, here on Sunday.
Namibia, who had impressed in the previous edition 12 months ago as well, recovered from 93 for six in the 15th over to post a challenging 163 for seven in 20 overs.
Jan Frylinck (44 off 28) and JJ Smit (31* off 16) did the damage in the death overs, sharing a whirlwind 69-run stand off 33 balls to raise concerns in the Sri Lankan dressing room.
Nicol Loftie-Eaton had made a handy 20 off 12 balls after the reigning Asian champions put them in to bat.
The Namibian pacers, led by Ben Shikongo, wrecked the Sri Lanka top- order before bowling them out for 108 in 19 overs for a memorable win.
Shikongo missed out on a famous hat-trick after removing opener Pathum Nissanka and Danushka Gunathilak off successive balls in the fourth over.
The dangerous Bhanuka Rajapaksa (20) and skipper Dasun Shanaka (29) tried to make a match out of it but the Namibians kept on taking wickets.
David Wiese, Bernard Scholtz, Frylinck and Shikongo ended up with two wickets each in what was a brilliant bowling performance.
.Netherlands pip UAE
Netherlands’ lower-middle order held their nerves to eke out a three-wicket victory over United Arab Emirates with a ball to spare in a Round 1 group A match of the ICC T20 World Cup here on Sunday.
While UAE struggled to reach 111 for 8 in 20 overs, the total started looking menacing once the Netherlands were reduced to 76 for 6 by the 14th over before they gathered their bearings.
It was Scott Edwards (16 not out) and Logan Van Beek (4*) who kept their cool in the final over bowled by medium pacer Zawar Farid as Netherlands scampered home for a single off the penultimate delivery of the match to start off on a winning note.
It was Pakistan-born Junaid Siddique (3/24 in 4 overs), who dismissed Tom Cooper (8) and former South African-born IPL player Roelof van der Merwe in three balls to bring UAE back.
But, Tim Pringle (15), son of former New Zealand seamer Chris, and Edwards added 27 runs in five overs to take the Netherlands team closer to victory.
Earlier, when UAE batted, they could never really force the pace as Muhammad Waseem crawled to 41 off 47 balls. Deliveries worth more than 10 overs went in the account of dots as all the Netherlands bowlers were on the money.
Pacer Bas de Leede was the pick of the bowlers with 3/19 in 3 overs while Fred Klaassen (2/13) and Van der Merwe (1/19) kept the total under check. (PTI)
