NAMIBIA have qualified for the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia after beating Oman by 54 runs in Dubai on Tuesday evening.
Namibia were struggling early on with the total at 55 for four wickets midway through their innings, but a brilliant knock by JJ Smit took them to a commanding 161 for seven wickets off their 20 overs.
Smit scored 59 off only 25 balls which included five sixes and three fours and shared an 83-run partnership with Craig Williams to put Namibia in the driving seat.
Williams scored 45 off 41 balls, while Niko Davin scored 21 and Gerhard Erasmus 15 as Namibia reached a commanding total.
In Oman’s innings, Jan Frylinck dismissed Jatinder Singh for a second ball duck, but Khawar Ali put them on track with a quickfire innings as he smashed Namibia’s bowlers, and especially Christi Viljoen to all corners of the park.
Namibian spinner Bernard Scholtz however got the breakthrough, dismissing Aqib Ilyas for 18 while he also got the big wicket of Ali for 41. In between Gerhard Erasmus dismissed Oman captain Zeeshad Maqsood for 2, as Oman crashed to 68/4.
Namibia’s spinners Scholtz and Erasmus took a grip of the game with some tight bowling and Oman could not recover, as the wickets started falling at regular intervals.
The whole team was eventually out for 107 with Scholtz taking three wickets for 14 runs and Erasmus 3/19.
JJ Smit capped a match winning performance when he took the final wicket, dismissing Fayyaz Butt for six, which set off some joyous scenes of celebration amongst the Namibian players and their coaching staff.
It is only the second time that Namibia has qualified for a cricket world cup, with their first appearance coming 16 long years ago at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
JJ Smit, who was a unanimous choice for man of the match said they believed in themselves to pull it through.
“I’m very relieved with the win, it was a tough match and I’m lost for words,” he said when he received his award.
“We just remained positive and this team never gives up. We just kept believing in ourselves and we knew there would also be bad balls because this is cricket,” he added.
“The people back home are probably drinking beer now and celebrating our victory. We have received lots of messages from all over the world – everyone believed in us and now finally we have done it,” he said.
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