Africa-Press – Namibia. NAMIBIA dropped down to fourth position on the Group 2 log of the T20 World Cup, after their 62-run defeat to Afghanistan on Sunday, and with heavyweights Pakistan, India and New Zealand lying in wait, their chances of making the semifinals are now remote.
Pakistan have been the in-form team, winning all three their matches convincingly to top the log on six points, while Afghanistan are second on four points, and New Zealand and Namibia on two points each. India and Scotland must still open their accounts.
Against Afghanistan, Namibia were outplayed in all departments of the game, with Afghanistan posting 160/5, which was more than enough as Namibia never got close to the target, eventually reaching 98/8.
Afghanistan got off to a great start as their openers Hazratullah Zazai (33) and Mohammed Shahzad put on 53 for the first wicket before JJ Smit dismissed Zazai for 33. Nicol Loftie-Eaton dismissed Rahmanullah Gurbaz for four, but there was little respite for Namibia as Afghanistan’s batsmen built a big score.
Shahzad top-scored with 45 off 33 balls, while Ashgar Afghan, playing in his last match for Afghanistan scored 31 and captain Mohammad Nabi 32 not out, as they reached a formidable total of 160.
Loftie-Eaton, who took two wickets for 21 and Ruben Trumpelmann with 2/34 were Namibia’s top bowlers. In Namibia’s innings, Craig Williams was dismissed early for one, and Afghanistan maintained the pressure with regular wickets.
Michael van Lingen scored 11, Loftie-Eaton 14, Gerhard Erasmus 12 and Zane Green one and when JJ Smit was dismissed for a duck they had slumped to 56/6 after 11 overs.
David Wiese gave Namibia hope with a fine innings of 26 off 30 balls, but it was too little too late as Namibia were restricted to 98/9, still 62 runs short of the target.
Naveen Ul-Haq, who took three wickets for 26 runs, won the man of the match award, while Hamid Hasamn took 3/9 and Gulbadin Naib 2/19. Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus said Afghanistan’s quality took them to victory.
“We knew it would be a level up from the previous games. Afghanistan got away with the bat and a few partnerships stretched the total, but I don’t think the pitch changed too much. To chase 160, you need to bat well, but it was the quality of their attack and their cricketers, that showed today. We are going to take this as a stepping stone for the future,” he said.
Namibia now take on Pakistan this afternoon, followed by New Zealand on Friday and India next Monday, and Erasmus said they will give it all they’ve got.
“We are going to leave it all out there, and give our best against high quality opposition but the results we cant control. Hopefully we can take the games very deep and match the intensity and the level of the test playing nations, who bring a huge challenge with the quality of players they have,” he said.
“We are under no illusions that they are big cricketing nations and have been for many years, but we’ll continue showing our fighting spirit and hopefully we can end this tour very well,” he added.
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