It was the biggest upset of the T20 World Cup 2021 yet as associate nation Namibia knocked out Test-playing nation Ireland, beating them by eight wickets in a virtual qualifier. The victory ensured that Namibia, which qualified for a T20 World Cup for the first time ever, marched into Super 12, creating history for themselves.
Experienced former South African international, David Wiese, who switched sides to play for Namibia in this World Cup was once again the hero, making a crucial 28 off just 14 balls with the bat, relieving skipper Gerhard Erasmus of the pressure of the required run rate.
Erasmus himself scored the second-ever fifty for Namibia in a T20 World Cup and was the anchor of the chase with his brilliant 53 unbeaten of 49 balls, making the small chase of 126 an easy affair at the end.
With 126 runs to chase down in Sharjah, it did not really start well as opener Craig Williams was dismissed with the team score of 25 in the sixth over. In fact, the chase was going real slow for the first 11 overs as the Eagles could only make 54 and needed 72 from the last nine.
When Weise entered in the 14th over, he started hitting the ball right from the word go and thus the match was finished with nine balls remaining.
Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, Irish skipper Andrew Balbirnie decided to bat first and a great start from the openers with the team notching up 55 runs in the powerplay. However, losing both the openers in Kevin O’Brien and Paul Stirling in quick succession didn’t help the Irish cause apart from those two and skipper Balbirnie himself no other batter was able to cross the single-digit score.
As a result, the men in green could only get to 125-8 in their 20 overs. Jan Frylinck and Wiese were the picks of the bowlers for the Namibian team as they took three and two wickets respectively.
With this win, Namibia will now end up in Group 2 of the Super 12 alongside India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Scotland.