Namibia Senior Men’s Cricket team beat Scotland by eight wickets in their first-ever Super 12 match at the ongoing Twenty-20 (T20) World Cup in Abu Dhabi on Thursday afternoon.

Namibia won the toss and elected to field first and restricted Scotland to a paltry 109 for 8 in 20 overs.

Captain JJ Smit was the top scorer with 32 runs off 23 balls and was ably supported by Craig Williams with 23 runs and Michael van Lingen who scored 18 on a low scoring wicket which suited the spinners.

Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann was the pick of the bowlers as he took three wickets for 17 runs in his four overs (3-17 (4), while Jan Frylinck took 2-10 (4) to give Namibia an easy chase target.

The win by Namibia sees them get two points in the Super 12 Stage of the competition and sits third on the log, two points behind Pakistan (four points) and Afghanistan (two) but with a better net run rate of +6.50 compared to Namibia’s +0.55.

In fourth place is New Zealand, followed by India in fifth place and Scotland in sixth (all with zero points).

Speaking at the end of the match, Trumpelmann said it was a great result for the team and hoped they can get a few more wins in the tournament.

“The preparations have been going well the past two days and the swing worked well for me during training and luckily it went my way again today. I felt good with the swing so I said to myself I am at the world cup so why not enjoy it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Captain Gerhard Erasmus was delighted to win saying it was a good performance by the team as it has been emotional coming through the group stages.

“We know there are quality sides in our group so we have to lift our performances, we are excited about the challenge and we will take some good momentum and good energy to those games,” he said.

He also praised his opening bowler Trumpelmann who set a high standard for the rest of the team.

This was Namibia’s third victory at the 2021 Cricket World Cup following their victories over Ireland and Netherlands in the qualifying rounds.

Namibia next plays Pakistan on 02 November before facing New Zealand on 05 November and will conclude with India on 08 November.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency