In the end, T20 World Cup opener did prove to be a cakewalk for Sri Lanka, who failed to put up a contest against Namibia in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The Namibians were bundled out for just 96 in a poor seven-wicket defeat.
As was expected, Sri Lanka’s incisive spinners helped them cover up for their batting flaws against an inexperienced opposition in Group A. Mystery spinners Maheesh Theekshana (3/25), Wanindu Hasaranga (2/24) were the chief destroyers as Namibia never really got going and lost a flurry of wickets.
Pacer Lahiru Kumara also nailed the hard lengths and picked up 2/9 off his three overs. Further in the pace department, Cheemara Karunaratne (1/17) and Dushmantha Chameera (1/19) bowled tight spells to force the opposition to take big risks for scoring.
Among the Namibian batters, Craig Williams (29) and skipper Gerhard Erasmus (20) were the only ones to make it past the 20-run mark as the African associates collectively failed to reach the three figures.
In the run-chase, Sri Lanka did begin shakily, losing three early wickets to slip to 26/3. But they quickly recovered from the early blows with a superb partnership between Avishka Fernando (30*) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (42*). While Fernando played the anchor, Rajapaksa took on the bowling. The duo helped Sri Lanka easily navigate through the rest of the run-chase.
Ruben Trumpelmann (1/27), Bernard Scholtz (1/16) and JJ Smit (1/7) picked up a wicket each inside the powerplay but given their insipid batting performance in the first half. The Namibians had hardly any runs to play around with.
Having closed out the chase with six and a half overs to spare, SL boosted their net run rate significantly, which would help them in case they have any hiccup in the next two games against Ireland and Netherlands.
Brief scores
Namibia 96/10 in 19.3 overs (Williams 29, Erasmus 20; Theekshana 3/25; Kumara 2/9) lost to Sri Lanka 100/3 in 13.3 overs (Rajapaksa 42*, Fernando 30*; JJ Smit 1/7, Scholtz 1/16) by seven wickets
