England played their part to perfection in Antigua on Saturday to thrash Namibia by 41 runs in a 10-over contest after posting 122/5 on the board. The team’s destiny now rests in Scotland’s hands, given a win or no result against Australia would see them qualify for the Super 8 at England’s expense.
Brief score: ENG 122/5 (10) [Brook 47*(20), Bairstow 31(18); Trumpelmann 2/31(2)] beat NAM 84/3 (10) [van Lingen 33(19), Wiese 27(12); Archer 1/15(2)] by 41 runs (DLS method)
After three hours of waiting for the rain to relent, an 11-over contest was announced with Namibia opting to bowl first. Veteran David Wiese got the side off to a brilliant start by just conceding one in his opening over and Ruben Trumpelmann capitalized with an inswinging jaffa to send skipper Jos Buttler packing for a duck. Wiese returned to cap off the three-over powerplay and produced a sensational knuckle ball first up to outfox Phil Salt, leaving the visitors reeling at 18/2 after three overs. However, Gerhard Erasmus erroneously decided to get spin into the game thereon, allowing Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow to put together an explosive half-century stand in just four overs. Moeen Ali continued in the same vein after the latter departed, his six-ball 16 split across a brief stop-in-play that cut down the game to 10 overs a side, before Liam Livingstone capped off the innings with two mammoth hits to propel England to 122/5.
The new-ball duo of Reece Topley and Jofra Archer executed well with the shiny new Kookaburra to restrict Michael van Lingen and Nikolaas Davin to 18 runs in the three-over powerplay. By the end of six overs, the required run rate had skyrocketed past 20, forcing Namibia to retire Davin out for the hard-hitting Wiese in a last-ditch attempt. The 39-year-old responded to the call of duty with a couple of huge maximums and was sent off by the opposition with heartwarming congratulations to commemorate a glorious career. Nonetheless, it made little difference to the result, as England cruised through their remaining overs to complete a breezy victory.
What a player!
This Van Lingen innings of 33(29) stands with S.Gavaskar’s 36(174). Man, what a player he can retire now.#ENGvsNAM
— LazyPunter (@lazy_punter) June 15, 2024
Simple
46 needed off 6 balls #ENGVSNAM pic.twitter.com/WrmmmmEBn6
— Cricket Fan in Toronto (@HabsFanInTO) June 15, 2024
Namibia lost the match as need 46 from 6 balls 😴 Brilliant bowling by Namibia n equally batting but too late for them to chase, Davin lost 16 balls for 18 runs and retd hurt to make Wiese to bat 😳#t20inUSA #T20worldcup #Rain #INDvCAN #INDvsCAN #CANvsIND #ENGvsNAM pic.twitter.com/yeXcxnCiME
— Cric_Lover 🏏 (@ankit_bhattar) June 15, 2024
Respect
Only if
Only if Namibia restricted England under 100 this could have been turned out to be another upset nevertheless England kept themselves in the race of super 8 lets see what Scotland and Australia cooks…#ICC #T20worldcup2024 #ENGvsNAM
— Abhishek Singh (@abbhishrek) June 15, 2024
Worst bowling and then worst opening costed this match to Nambia#ENGvsNAM #ENGvNAM
— Gautam (@Gautam90s) June 15, 2024
Power packed
6️⃣,6️⃣,4️⃣
Adil Rashid faces the brunt of David Wiese’s onslaught but is it too late for Namibia with a required rate of 28? 🤔#ENGvNAM #ENGvsNAM #NAMvENG— PANKAJ (@BuzzNeus76170) June 15, 2024
The wrongs
Wrong by Buttler, should ‘ve gone Archer, Jordan , Adil. Can’t believe CJ bowls this one & not Archer 🤦🏾♂️ #ENGvsNAM #T20WorldCup
— Sushant (@RedDevilsSupptr) June 15, 2024
lol so I slept and considered that it would be no match between England & Namibia but luckily @englandcricket got 10 overs to win 2 points…
Namibia 71/1 in 8 overs…
Just a few balls remaining
WIESE is a good hitter… #ENGVSNAM #t20worldcup #cricket #t20wcwithtok pic.twitter.com/yXIffRFFm9— Aatif – An Astrologer🏹 (@AatifAzio1) June 15, 2024
Outrageous
Outrageous from Namibia management for taking so much time to retired out one of the player when the game was dine and dusted.
Unreal man! Why would you wait for so long 🤦#ENGvsNAM— Abhi aks (@abhiaks9231) June 15, 2024