T20 World Cup: Namibia stuns former champion Sri Lanka in opener

Namibia stunned former champion, Sri Lanka, in the opening match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Geelong, Australia on Sunday (October 16).

Sri Lanka, which recently won the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was handed a shock 55-run defeat by Namibia in the First Round match.

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After recovering from 93/6 to post 163/7 in 20 overs, Namibia bowled out Sri Lanka for 108 in 19 overs.

Jan Frylinck starred with an all-round performance, first scoring 44 off 28 with four fours and later took 2/26 In 4 overs. He won the Player-of-the-match award.

After the famous win, Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus said, “It has been an incredible journey, last year was exciting for us and we’ve now topped that with a great win. Though there’s still a lot of work to do for the rest of the tournament. But yeah it’s been a historic day for us.”

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“I think the surface played really well but the execution was not there when it comes to the bowling. We’re concerned whether our bowlers bowled in the right areas as compared to the Namibian bowlers. We also wanted the first three batters to continue in the powerplay, so losing three wickets in the powerplay put us out of the game,” said losing captain Dasun Shanaka.

A day Namibia won’t forget anytime soon 😍#T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/KCdzxUORsb

— ICC (@ICC) October 16, 2022

A day Namibia won’t forget anytime soon 😍#T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/KCdzxUORsb

— ICC (@ICC) October 16, 2022