Just another day in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, where Pakistan beat Namibia by 45 runs in their ongoing campaign, while playing for the first time against each other in a T20 World Cup.
Pakistan booked their entry into the semi-finals, and being the first team to do so, the Pakistan cricket team is looking dangerous and unstoppable.
Namibia has shown us some great spirit in the game throughout the tournament, while Pakistan, on the other hand, is shining with their remarkable consistency and also enjoying the privileges at the top of the table in their group.
Slow and steady wins the race
Pakistan, after winning the toss, decided to bat first. The dangerous duo from Pakistan – Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, opened for the side but were restricted in playing their shots during the first over of the game. The Namibian bowler, Ruben Trumpelmann, bowled a maiden first up, becoming one of only three bowlers in the tournament to do so.
The match witnessed the second-lowest Powerplay score Pakistan has ever posted without losing any wicket. 28-0 against India in the 2016 World Cup is the only time they reached the six-over mark with a lower score.
Both the openers have been performing at their peak since the start of the tournament and are proving to be a successful pair with the bat. Against Namibia, the duo had a partnership of 113 runs off just 86 deliveries. Their attacking percentage during the initial phase was just 48%, with a run rate of 5.62, while it drastically changed to 63% during overs 9-12.
The opening partnership was broken by the key performer from Namibia, David Wiese, during the 15th over of the first innings. Wiese completed his spell of four overs with figures of 1/30.
Azam scored 70 runs off 49 balls, and struck at a strike rate of 142.85, while Rizwan made sure Pakistan set a huge target for the Namibians’ with his unbeaten 79 runs from 50 balls, striking at 158.
Mohammad Hafeez played a quickfire knock of 32 runs that guided Pakistan to a good finish, along with Rizwan, who smashed 24 runs in the final over bowled by Namibia’s JJ Smit. At the end of 20 overs, Pakistan posted a score of 189/2. 130 runs came from the last ten overs after they were just 59/0 at the end of ten overs.
The Pakistan batters set a perfect real-life example of the proverb – “Slow and steady wins the race”.
An impressive effort from Namibia
Stephen Baard and Michael van Lingen opened the batting and started the chase cautiously, but lost their first wicket very early. Michael was bowled by Hasan Ali off the third ball of the second over.
Despite the early wicket, Namibia managed to get to 55 runs during the ninth over when they lost their second wicket. Stephen Baard was looking in good touch but was dismissed by an unfortunate run-out by Haris Rauf and Rizwan, which changed the course of the game. He left after scoring 29 runs off 29 balls.
After that, Craig Williams, with a responsible knock of 40 runs from 37 balls, left the crease with Namibia 93/4 during the 14th over of the second innings.
Post that, Namibia never got the momentum going. They had wickets in hand but couldn’t break through Pakistan’s disciplined bowling. Only 46 runs were scored by the Namibians while losing three wickets between overs 11-18.
Wiese, who was Namibia’s key performer with both bat and ball, remained unbeaten on 43* runs off 31 balls, but couldn’t help his team chase down the stiff target. Namibia could only score 143 runs at the end of 20 overs, losing five wickets.
Four of the Pakistani bowlers, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Haris Rauf, and Shadab Khan, managed to take a wicket each. However, the young, in-form pacer Shaheen Afridi was pretty expensive with the bowl. With four wins from four matches, Pakistan must be feeling confident going ahead.