Mehran Khan’s brilliant spell helped Oman tie the game, but David Wiese’s heroics in the Super Over gave Namibia victory in their opening ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 encounter.
Namibia vs Oman
Toss: Namibia Elected To Bowl.
Wiese Heroics Give Namibia The Win
David Wiese and Gerhard Erasmus took full advantage of Bilal Khan’s pace and hit four fours to take Namibia to 21 runs in the scheduled Super Over.
After scoring 13 runs from 4 with the bat in the Super Over, Wiese performed brilliantly with the ball for the Eagles, conceding only 10 runs while taking the wicket of big-hitting Naseem Khushi.
Earlier: Oman Fight Ties The Game
Defending 110, Bilal Khan gave Oman the perfect start by bowling opener Michael van Lingen for a duck on the very second ball of the innings. While Nicolas Devlin and Jan Frylinck both tried to go for their shots, they were troubled by uneven bounce in the early stages of the chase.
The pair managed to save their wicket despite several hits and misses and at the end of the powerplay period Namibia were 32/1. After this, captain Aaqib Ilyas introduced spinners and medium pacers to reduce the ball speed. As the runs dwindled, Devlin tried to take advantage of Aaqib’s spin.
After seven consecutive dot balls, Aaqib was sent down by Devlin for a six. However, the clever spinner got his revenge on the very next ball when he had Devlin caught by Mohammad Nadeem.
Disciplined spin bowling from Aaqib and Zeeshan Maqsood put a brake on Namibia’s scoring rate in the middle overs. For his part, Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus tried to keep the scoring rate close by running a through ball with Frylink. Oman dropped important catches in a nervous game but eventually Maqsood dismissed Erasmus (13) in the 15th over off the bowling of Ayaan Khan.
Set Frylinck took the initiative at this stage and hit a flurry of boundaries to bring the asking rate level with three overs remaining. Mehran Khan’s brilliant 18th over gave only four byes and took the wicket of JJ Smit. David Wiese’s six in the 19th over helped bring the equation down to five in the final over.
Mehran, who had so far conceded only four runs in two overs, increased his tally of wickets from one to three by bowling Frylink and LBW of Zane Green (0) in the first three balls of the final over. The equation eventually came down to two-one between the aggressive Wiese and Willy Mehran. Wiese could not connect but the wicketkeeper bounced the ball and the batsmen stole the bye. The game went into a super over. Mehran gave only seven runs for three wickets in his three overs.
Trumpelmann Special Runs Through Oman
In Barbados, Erasmus won the toss and decided to bowl first. Opposition number one Aaqib Ilyas was not bothered by the fact that his team had to bat first, confident that the ball would come onto the bat well and improve their scoring chances.
Ruben Trumpelmann was in action in the first over. On the very first ball, he got Oman opener Kashyap Prajapati out LBW with a pinpoint yorker. On the very next ball, he bowled another brilliant yorker, which caught Oman captain Aqib Ilyas unawares and left the batsman LBW on duck.
The left-arm pacer had his third over in his second over when Naseem Khushi tried to drive him down the track but could only find Erasmus at mid-off. Experienced Zeeshan Maqsood took charge of the innings in the first powerplay and stabilized Oman’s innings while bringing the scoring rate to a run a ball.
However, Bernard Scholtz dealt a further blow to Oman by LBW him in the seventh over. Disciplined bowling from the tweakers ensured that Oman’s lower order did not deteriorate with the changes in pace. Scholtz and Erasmus continued to provide breakthroughs for the Eagles, while Oman’s batsmen struggled to get the ball past the inner circle.
Oman failed to hit a single four in the span of 44 balls between the 10th over and the 17th over. The Asian team tried to get the scoring rate up when Namibia’s fast bowlers came into the death overs, but David Wiese and Trumpelman bowled out Oman in the last overs before they could complete their quota of overs.
Read Here: AMAZON GREAT SUMMER SALE 2024
Read here Now: England Vs Pakistan: 4th T20 international – As It Happened
