The result was never in doubt as defending champions India scripted a 93-run victory over Namibia. The gulf in class showed as Namibia folded for 116 chasing 210 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday, failing against the quality bowling attack led by
mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. Chakravarthy, who bowled Louren Steenkamp with a googly off his very first delivery, and Axar Patel ran rings around the Namibian batting line-up.
Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton was caught at long off and JJ Smit was castled in the only two overs bowled by Chakravarthy. It was followed by the fall of skipper Gerhard Erasmus to Axar, caught at long off. It being the fifth wicket to fall, the writing was on the wall. Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube then polished off the tail to script India’s biggest win in the T20 World Cup.
Despite the big win, the Indian batters’ frailty showed up once again as they failed to close the innings out against Namibia. For the second successive match, India faltered against an Associate team. In Mumbai, against the USA, India slumped to 77/6 in 13 overs before captain Suryakumar Yadav’s unbeaten 84 gave some respectability to their total as they finished on 161.
On Thursday, just when Pandya and Dube were looking to finish the innings with a flourish after having shared a partnership of 81 runs, the hosts lost quick wickets.
Pandya had just completed his half century with a towering six off the bowling of Erasmus. The score was reading 205/4 and with 10 deliveries left in the innings, the hosts were looking at a score of the upwards of 225. However, Pandya in trying to hit another six was caught by substitute fielder Dylan Leicher. What followed was mayhem as India lost four wickets and could only add four runs to the total.
Dube was caught short trying to take a run after a misfield off the very next ball. Three balls later, Axar was bowled by Erasmus. In the last over, Rinku Singh holed out after refusing to take singles off the first two deliveries and then Arshdeep Singh was run out trying to take a double off the last ball of the innings. The Namibians bowled full and wide in the last four overs to stem the run flow.
A similar choke happened after seven overs. Opener Ishan Kishan was finding boundaries at will as India batting first scored at a rapid pace to post 104/1 in only seven overs. Ishan, batting on 61, then found the deep mid-wicket fielder. This was Erasmus’ first delivery of the innings. Left-arm orthodox Bernard Scholtz then had skipper Suryakumar stumped before Tilak Varma was caught at mid-on off Erasmus as the hosts only added 20 runs in the next five overs.
Next up is the game against Pakistan in Colombo on February 15 and India led by Suryakumar have to work out how to counter the four-man spin-bowling attack of their arch-rivals. Another stutter would mean a big disappointment.