The much-awaited 20-20 World Cup 2022 started with an extraordinary curtain-raiser match in which the Asia Cup 2022 winners were defeated by the minnow team in Namibia.
The qualifier between the Asian team and the African team was expected to go in Sri Lanka’s favour as the South Asian team were coming off a sensational win in the Asia Cup. Cricket fans however were treated with shocking results in the first match itself.
Sri Lanka started off on the front foot by choosing to bowl first following a toss win. The Namibia team got off to a poor start as they lost their first wicket at just six runs. Michael van Lingen was the first one to go from the Namibia side. The other opener Divan la Cock also failed to impress as he was removed by Pramod Madushan Liyanagamage in the third over.
The next two batters, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton (20) and Stephan Baard (26) combined to add important runs to the Namibian scoreboard. It was the middle-order batter Jan Frylinck who played a quickfire knock of 44 off 28 to take the scoreline further. Nambia ended the innings with a flurry as JJ Smit hit 31 off of 16 balls to take Nambian to 163/7 in 20 overs.
The run chase did not start well for Sri Lanka who lost both of their openers at just 21 runs. Middle-order batters Bhanuka Rajapaksa (20) and Dasun Shanaka (29) held the innings for a while but could not take the team close to the target. Namibian bowling held the nerve in their first match with four bowlers taking two wickets each to subject the Asia Cup winners to just 108 runs.
With Dushmantha Chameera’s catch in the 19th over, Namibia scripted history and won their first-ever match in Australia. The minnow team has come up with a statement win in the World Cup and given a lot to think for the other teams who were thinking of an easy qualifier.
Let’s look at how Twitter reacted to Namibia’s thrilling win over Sri Lanka at the 20-20 World Cup.
#SLvsNAM #T20WorldCup Namibia vs Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka team tactics to win the Cup is that Do not Win first match.
Australia team tactics not to win the bi lateral series before the World Cup pic.twitter.com/Sp5uHhUKZF
— How Football Saved Humans – Great Book to Read (@HowHumans) October 16, 2022
The last few overs have been kamikaze. Sri Lanka's defeat in this match was all-but guaranteed a few overs ago but the batting that has followed only serves to risk their chance of an enormous NRR hit. #T20WorldCup
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) October 16, 2022
What a win for Namibia ??and what start to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup!! #T20WorldCup #SLvNAM
— Mpumelelo Mbangwa (@mmbangwa) October 16, 2022
SL Fans Be Like #T20WorldCup2022 #SrilankaCricket pic.twitter.com/U3h9MM8tpc
— Umram (@Umramud) October 16, 2022
#T20WorldCup2022
Asia ke sheir … Namibia k aage dheir ? pic.twitter.com/17badQJ9gb— Muhammad Talha (@PakcricLove) October 16, 2022
Namibia have done it – one of the most famous victory in the history of Namibian cricket. Defeated Sri Lanka by 55 runs in the opening game of 2022 World Cup.
Well played, Namibia! pic.twitter.com/Tvr1lfZk62
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 16, 2022
Take a bow Namibia ???? #SLvsNAM #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/y8jySVWghZ
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) October 16, 2022
Incredible Namibia! One of their greatest wins over a side that won Asia Cup recently. That too winning comprehensively by 55 runs & boosting qualification chances ?
For SL, they had a shocker – but I'm not gonna write them off, they bounced back in Asia Cup after a poor start pic.twitter.com/Kehb3gDcH9
— Sivy Kanefied (@Sivy_KW578) October 16, 2022
The unpredictability of Sri Lanka:
Beat Pakistan twice
Beat India
Win the Asia Cup
Lose to Namibia#T20WorldCup #AsiaCup2022— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) October 16, 2022
