Pakistan cricketers made it a point to cheer up their less experienced Namibian counterparts after the win on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi in the T20 World Cup 2021.
Their mainstays Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez led the way along with the team manager and were seen appreciating Namibian players for their hardwork and journey towards a T20 World Cup.
Pakistan Cricket Board shared a heartwarming clip of the same over Twitter as Hafeez, Afridi, as well as Hassan Ali and Fakhar Zaman, were seen entering the opposition dressing room and congratulating them for their inspirational rise and impressive fight in the World Cup so far.
In the clip, the manager can be seen lauding the Namibian players for their performance despite losing on the day and said, on behalf of the Pakistan team, that they see a “brilliant” future for them.
Thereafter, the four Pakistan cricketers made the Namibian players laugh and had lighter moments with them, something that Namibian players would have appreciated a lot.
This was the first-ever instance that Namibia were playing Pakistan in a T20I. In fact, only their second international T20 against a traditional top 8 country.
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Despite that, however, the Namibians had Pakistan in trouble at the start of the game where they could manage just 59 runs in the first 10 overs. With the bat as well, Namibia were commendable during certain stages of their run-chase.
In many ways, Namibia’s rise has been one of the most beautiful stories to have emerged out of this T20 World Cup. Hardly anyone gave them a chance to secure a place in the Super 12s but not only did they defeat the more-fancied Netherlands and Ireland in the preliminary round but also beat Scotland in their first game of the next stage.
Qualification to the Super 12s also earned Namibia a direct place in the next year’s edition of the T20 World Cup in Australia – which is remarkable for a team that had never previously featured at the event and had to go through four successive rounds of qualification events to make this far.
