Namibia upset Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup opener

Jan Frylinck with this all-round performance and David Wiese with the ball helped Namibia crush Sri Lanka in the 1st match of Group A of the T20 World Cup in Geelong in Australia! It was a Shocker as Sri Lanka went into this match with an Asia Cup 2022 title!

Image Credits: NDTV Sports

Toss Update: Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first.

After being sent into bat first, Namibia scored 163 on the board losing 7 wickets in 20 overs. Namibia were only heading towards a below-par total when they were struggling at 6-93 in the 15th over. Then Jan Frylinck (44 off 28) and JJ Smit (31* off 16) added 70 runs in the last 5.4 overs to get them to a competitive total on the board!

All 5 Sri Lankan bowlers in this match claimed at least a wicket. However, their death bowling was poor as they leaked 68 runs from the last 5 overs! Being a day game and no due around, there are no excuses they can give after conceding so heavily at the death!

Sri Lanka, chasing 164 runs to win, managed to score 108 losing 10 wickets in 19 overs. They lost their first wicket in just the 2nd over and never recovered from that blow! They lost wickets regularly and the asking rate went higher and higher with each wicket falling!

Dasun Shanaka was their top scorer with 29 runs but none of their batters really showed application on this wicket which was two-paced according to Namibia's Frylinck. All the Namibian bowlers showed application with David Wiese (2-16) being the pick. Bernard Scholtz (2-18), Ben Shikongo (2-22), Jan Frylinck (2-26), and JJ Smit (1-16) were successful with the ball in this match!

Match result: Namibia defeated Sri Lanka by a margin of 55 runs.

Jan Frylinck has been adjudged as the Player of the Match for his crucial contribution of 44 runs off 28 deliveries including 4 fours with the bat and 2-26 from 4 overs with the ball.

Brief Scores: Namibia: 163-7 in 20 overs (Jan Frylinck - 44, Pramod Madushan - 2-37) defeated Sri Lanka: 108-10 in 19 overs (Dasun Shanaka - 29, David Wiese - 2-16) by a margin of 55 runs