Asian Champions Sri Lanka were dealt a massive blow in their opening T20 World cup match in Round 1 as minnows Namibia beat them by 55 runs. The win for Namibia will go down as one of the biggest upsets in the history of the T20 World Cup as they beat the former champions in Geelong. The embarrassing defeat now means that Namibia top the group while Sri Lanka now have to win their remaining two matches to stand a chance to play in the Super 12.
T20 World Cup 2022: Namibia stun Asian champions Sri Lanka in T20 WC opener with emphatic 55-run win
Earlier in the day, after winning the toss it was Sri Lanka who opted to field in what proved to be a costlier decision. Chasing 164 the Sri Lanka batting was all over the place as they lost quickfire wickets in the powerplays. Ben Shikongo was the chief culprit for the former champions as he scalped two wickets in his first over to set the tone for the African side.
There were contributions with the bat from Dhananjaya de Silva (12), Bhanuka Rajapaksa (20), and Dasun Shanaka (29), but the rest of the players returned with single digits scores as Sri Lanka were reduced to 108 in 19 overs. David Wiese, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo and Jan Frylinck all ended with 2 wickets each for Namibia.
Earlier when asked to bat first, Namibia made a poor start to their innings and lost Michael van Lingen (3) and Michael van Lingen (9) early in the powerplays. However, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton and Stephan Baard steadied the ship by scoring 20 and 26 runs respectively. But again, lost way before Gerhard Erasmus (20) and Jan Frylinck took the initiative to put a 70-run stand for the seventh wicket.
Jan Frylinck scored 44 off 28 deliveries that consisted of 4 fours and was the main reason why Namibia scored in excess of 150 runs despite 93/6.
Namibia will next be in action on Tuesday against Netherlands in Geelong while Sri Lanka will play UAE on same day with a do-or-die contest in hands.
