T20 World Cup: Gerhard Erasmus, David Wiese take debutants Namibia to Super 12s

Erasmus
(53
not
out
off
49
balls)
guided
Namibia’s
chase
of
126
in
the
company
of
David
Wiese,
who
made
an
unbeaten
28.
Namibia
made
a
quiet
start
to
their
chase.
Boundaries
were
hard
to
come
by
for
Namibia
batters
as
they
dealt
mostly
in
singles
and
twos.

Their
struggle
can
be
gauged
from
the
fact
that
they
found
the
fence
only
four
times
in
the
first
10
overs,
scoring
49
for
one.
Needing
77
off
the
last
10
overs,
Erasmus
and
Zane
Green
(24)
shared
48
runs
for
the
second
wicket
to
keep
Namibia
in
the
contest.

The
duo
played
sensibly
and
brought
down
the
equation
to
55
off
42
balls
and
with
nine
wickets
in
hand,
Namibia
were
clear
favourites
to
win
the
contest.
But
Green
failed
to
clear
Kevin
O’Brien
at
mid-off
to
make
the
contest
interesting.

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After
his
two
wickets
with
the
ball,
Wiese
came
to
Namibia’s
rescue
by
hitting
Craig
Young
for
back-to-back
sixes
in
the
15th
over
to
bring
down
the
equation
to
33
off
the
last
five
overs.

Needing
21
off
18
balls,
Erasmus
lofted
off-spinner
Simi
Singh
over
the
long-off
boundary
and
then
struck
two
boundaries
in
the
19th
over
off
Craig
Young
to
finish
off
the
chase
in
style
with
nine
balls
remaining.
Namibia
have
joined
Sri
Lanka
in
the
Super
12s
from
Group
A.

Earlier,
asked
to
bowl,
Namibian
bowlers
made
a
strong
comeback
after
Ireland
made
a
brisk
start
to
restrict
them
to
a
modest
125
for
eight.
Ireland
started
brightly
with
Paul
Stirling
(38)
and
Kevin
O’Brien
(25)
sharing
62
runs
off
just
44
balls
for
the
opening
stand.
But
Namibia
pulled
things
back
by
removing
both
the
openers
in
quick
succession
as
Ireland
slumped
to
67
for
two
in
8.4
overs.

After
the
opening
partnership,
Ireland
innings
literally
fell
apart
as,
barring
skipper
Andy
Bilbirnie
(21),
no
other
batter
could
reach
a
double-digit
score.
The
dismissal
of
Gareth
Delany
pegged
back
Ireland
considerably
as
their
batters
found
it
difficult
to
keep
up
the
scoring
rate,
reaching
just
95
runs
for
the
loss
of
three
wickets
at
the
end
of
the
15th
over.

Bilbirnie
tried
his
best
to
lift
the
innings
but
he
also
struggled
to
rotate
the
strike
against
some
incisive
bowling
by
Namibia
in
the
second
half
of
the
innings,
picking
up
six
wickets
by
conceding
just
54
runs
in
the
last
10
overs.

Ireland’s
problems
were
compounded
when
left-arm
pacer
Jan
Frylinck
snared
two
wickets
in
the
16th
over
—
first
Bilbirnie
LBW
and
then
Curtis
Campher.
Wickets
continued
to
tumble
as
Weise
next
accounted
for
Harry
Tector
as
Ireland’s
innings
went
from
bad
to
worse.
Frylinck
(3/21)
was
the
pick
of
the
bowlers
for
Namibia,
while
Wiese
(2/22)
also
snared
two
wickets.