The second round Group A fixtures from the preliminary round of the T20 World Cup 2022 witnessed two contrasting games in Geelong on October 18. While Namibia ran the Netherlands close despite an insipid batting effort, Sri Lanka came roaring back to winning ways by dominating the hapless UAE.
In the first game, the Namibians kept the Dutch on the park as deep as halfway-mark of the 20th over despite defending a measly target of 122 runs.
Netherlands had another unconvincing batting performance as their openers Max O’Dowd (35) and Vikramjit Singh (39) all got starts but failed to kick on. It required a skilful and measured hand by Bas de Leede (30*) to take the side through.
JJ Smit (2/21) and Bernard Scholtz (1/21) were the pick of the bowlers for Namibia, who would’ve been rueing a batting performance which saw them failing to make their arsenal count well enough. They sent out, for example, David Wiese and Smit way too late to the crease after Jan Frylinck’s painstaking 43 off 48 soaked all the momentum out of the innings.
In a superb allround performance, batting hero de Leede had earlier delivered an impressive spell of 2 for 18 for the Dutch, who now stand 2 wins out of 2 but with an NRR (+0.149) that could still haunt them back. Despite their loss, the Namibians, who hammered Sri Lanka on the opening day, stand with a net run-rate of +1.277.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankans did some catching up on that front via their game against the men from the Middle East at the same venue later in the day. They absolutely hammered UAE with the ball, getting them all out for just 73 in defence of their modest 152/8.
Sri Lankan bowlers had a field outing, making an easy feast of the hapless opposition batting unit, with Dushmantha Chameera (3/15) and Wanindu Hasaranga (3/8) getting three wickets apiece.
The Island nation, however, would be a touch disappointed with their batting. Collapsing miserably against the Namibians, they faltered below the 160-mark and only reached over 150 due to Pathum Nissanka’s 74 off 60 balls.
For UAE, the only real positive was their hat-trick man Karthik Meiyappan (3/19).
