Bridgetown: Oman’s fightback in the death overs went in vain as David Wiese’s heroic efforts both with bat and ball in the Super Over helped Namibia start their T20 World Cup campaign with a win in low-scoring enthralling match here at the Kensington Oval on Sunday (local time).
Wiese emerged as the hero for Namibia with both bat and ball as he slammed 13 in the Super Over and came back to bowl, got a wicket, defending 21 runs. Despite reducing Oman to 109 in 20 overs, Namibia did not have it easy as the game finished in a tie, marking the first Super Over in a men’s T20 World Cup tournament since 2012.
Defending 110, Bilal Khan gave Oman the perfect start, bowling opener Michael van Lingen for a duck off the very second ball of the innings. While Nikolaas Davin and Jan Frylinck attempted to play their shots, they were hampered by the inconsistent bounce during the early stages of the pursuit. Namibia was 32/1 at the end of the first powerplay. The skipper, Aqib Ilyas, then used spinners and medium pacers to slow the ball down.
Despite a lot of smashes and misses, the duo held on to their wickets, and Namibia finished the powerplay at 32/1. As the runs dried up, Davin attempted to replicate Aqib’s spin. Davin hit Aqib for a six after seven consecutive dot balls. The wily spinner, on the other hand, exacted his revenge by having Davin caught by Mohammad Nadeem on the very next delivery.
The disciplined spin from Aqib and Zeeshan Maqsood slowed Namibia’s scoring rate in the middle overs. Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus, for his part, attempted to keep the scoring rate tight. In the game of nerves, Oman dropped critical catches, but Maqsood eventually held off Ayaan Khan to remove Erasmus for 13 in the 15th over. The set Frylinck took initiative at this stage and hit a flurry of boundaries to bring the asking rate at par with three overs remaining.
Mehran Khan’s excellent 18th over yielded just four byes and claimed JJ Smit’s wicket. David Wiese’s six in the nineteenth over helped bring the equation to five off the last over. Mehran, who had only given four runs in two overs, increased his wicket total from one to three in the first three balls of the last over by bowling Frylinck and trapping Zane Green (0) lbw. The equation eventually came down to two versus one, with the aggressive Wiese up against the cunning Mehran. Wiese failed to connect, but the wicketkeeper botched the ball, giving the batsmen a bye. The game ended in a Super Over.
After labouring to chase down 5 runs in the penultimate over of a never-ending chase, Namibia came out firing in the Super Over. Seasoned all-rounder Wiese demonstrated his power-hitting ability by hitting a six and four against Bilal Khan, before skipper Gerhard Erasmus smashed two boundaries. Namibia scored 21 runs, the highest total in a Super Over in a men’s T20 World Cup competition.
Wiese excelled with the ball after being tasked with bowling the Super Over for Namibia. He took a wicket and gave only 10 runs as Namibia won the Super Over by 11 runs, kicking off their World Cup campaign with a victory. Earlier, Trumpelmann’s pace attack jolted Oman, taking three wickets inside the powerplay and the pacer went on to pick his fourth wicket of the night, returning with a figure of 4-21. Captian Erasmus with his crafty bowling picked two wickets while the seasoned pacer David Wiese bagged three scalps, conceding 28 runs in 3.4 overs.
Opted to bowl first, Ruben Trumpelmann drew the first blood as he got into the act with the first ball, trapping Oman opener Kashyap Prajapati for LBW with a superb yorker on his very first delivery. The very next ball, Trumpelmann delivered another magnificent yorker that caught Oman skipper Aqib Ilyas off guard, and the batter went lbw for a duck.
The left-arm pacer had a third in his second over when Naseem Khushi attempted to drive him down the track but only found Erasmus at mid-off. Experienced player Zeeshan Maqsod held the innings together during the first powerplay, keeping Oman’s innings steady and increasing the scoring rate to run a ball.
However, Bernard Scholtz had him leg before wicket in the seventh over, putting Oman farther behind. The spinner’s disciplined bowling ensured that Oman’s lower order did not take advantage of the change in speed. Scholtz and Erasmus continued to provide breakthroughs for the Eagles, even as Oman batters battled to move the ball past the inner circle.
Oman failed to knock a single boundary in 44 deliveries between the 10th and 17th overs. Khalid Kail then led Oman’s change as the batter slammed big shots before falling prey to David Wiese after scoring 34 runs in 39 balls.
When Namibia pacers arrived in the death overs, the Asian side attempted to pick up the scoring rate, but David Wiese and Trumpelmann nibbled away at the tail, bowling Oman out before they could complete their quota of overs.
Brief score: Oman 109 (Khalid Kail 34, Zeeshan Maqsood 22); Ruben Trumpelmann 4-21) vs Namibia 109/6 (Jan Frylinck 45, Nikolaas Davin 24; Mehran Khan 3-7).
