Underdogs Namibia stun current Asia Cup Champions Sri Lanka in Tournament Opener
T20 World Cup commenced today with its first round of qualifiers which saw favourites Sri Lanka take on underdogs Namibia. To everyone’s surprise, Namibia trashed a full-strength Sri Lankan side by 55 runs to take control of the Top-spot in the Points Table. Another surprising pointer was that Sri Lanka were in firm control of the match till the 15th over of the 1st innings where they had Namibia at just 95 runs with 6 wickets down. What everyone then witnessed was a stunning comeback by two of Namibia’s best batsmen Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit, scoring 68 runs off the final 5 overs to hand Sri Lanka a competitive target of 164 runs. Though not a massive target for a Lankan batting line-up which had batting depth till number 8, it proved enough for the Namibian bowlers to defend. None of the Lankan batters crossed the 15-run mark barring Bhanuka Rajapasksa and Skipper-Dasun Shanaka, who was also the team’s highest run scorer with 29 runs. As a result of their poor batting display, there were bundled out for a mere 108 runs in 19 overs, with Jan Frylinck again stealing the show with 2 massive wickets, including one of the Lankan-skipper. Frylinck was also awarded the Player of the Match award for his outstanding all-round performance which helped Namibia deliver the First Shock of T20 World Cup 2022.
All is still not over for Sri Lanka as they still have 2 games left, which they need to win comprehensively in a bid to make it the Super 12 round of the T20 World Cup.
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