Namibia suffered their third defeat at the T20 World Cup after going down by 31 runs to the United States in Chennai today.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, the United States set Namibia a huge victory target of 200. Namibia got off to a good start and were well on track when they reached 97/1 halfway through their innings, but then steadily lost wickets and their run chase fizzled out to 168/6.
It was Namibia’s third successive defeat which leaves them at the bottom of Group A on zero points, with only one group match remaining against Pakistan on Wednesday.
The USA got off to a strong start as captain Monank Patel and Shayan Jahangir put on 68 for the first wicket at just under seven overs.
WP Myburgh made the breakthrough, dismissing Patel for 52 and Jahangir for 22, and when captain Gerhard Erasmus dismissed Saiteja Mukkamalla for 17 after a great catch on the boundary by Nicol Loftie Easton, Namibia were back in the game at 103/3.
Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Milind Kumar however swung the momentum to the US with a 87-run partnership, as the former smashed 68 not out off 33 balls (4×4, 6×6) and the latter 28 as the US reached 199/4.
For Namibia, the spinners were the most successful with Erasmus taking 2/27 and WP Myburgh 2/22.
In reply, Namibia got off to a quick start with Jan Frylinck and Louren Steenkamp putting on 54 off under six overs before Frylinck was caufght and bowled by Shadley van Schalkwyk for 19.
Nicol Loftie Eaton and Steenkamp maintained the run rate, putting on 45 for the second wicket but Loftie-Eaton’s dismissal for 28 swung the match the way of the USA as the wickets started to tumble regularly.
Steenkamp top scored with 58 off 39 balls (5×4, 3×6), while JJ Smit added 31 off 23 (1×4, 1×6) as Namibia fell well short of the target.
Van Schalkwyk was the USA’s top bowler, taking 2/30, while he is currently also the leading wicket taker at the T20 World Cup with 13 wickets.
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