Australia's preparation for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 seems to be heading in the right direction as they hammered Namibia in their first warm-up game of the tournament by seven wickets. Despite fielding just nine players from their World Cup squad, the Australian players didn't break a sweat and made mincemeat of the opposition.
After winning the toss, Australia's skipper Mitchell Marsh elected to field first in order to challenge his batters with the pressure of a run chase. However, leg-spinner Adam Zampa wreaked havoc with his fizzing leg-breaks and sucked the life out of Namibia's batting order.
Zampa got rid of JP Kotze, Jan Frylinck and the Namibian skipper Gerhard Erasmus to leave Namibia reeling at 50/6 in 11.2 overs. He finished with impressive figures of 3/25 on his four-overs spell and didn't look rusty at any stage of the game.
Earlier, Josh Hazlewood began the proceedings for Australia with a bang after he removed Namibia's opener Michael van Lingen on the very second ball of the match for nought. He struck back in the fifth over and sent the other opener, Nikolaas Davin, back into the hutch to reduce Namibia to 19/2 after 4.3 overs.
Hazlewood bowled a dynamic spell of 2/5 on his four overs and gave Namibia a massive jolt up front.
Wicketkeeper-batter Zane Green helped Namibia register a respectable total of 119 on the board as he top-scored for his team with 38 off 30 balls. His innings was studded with five boundaries and came at a strike rate of 126.66.
Australia got off to a whirlwind start as the Bison and Bull pair (Mitchell Marsh and David Warner) added 39 for the opening wicket in just 3.1 overs.
While Marsh failed to kick on and perished after scoring 18 off 14 balls, Warner remained unbeaten on 54 off 21 deliveries and helped Australia get over the line by seven wickets and 10 overs to spare.
