Namibia kick off World Cup in style with famous upset

Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo show spirit and skill to hand Sri Lanka a heavy defeat

Namibia 163 for 7 (Frylinck 44, Smit 33*, Madushan 2-37) beat Sri Lanka 108 (Shanaka 29, Wiese 2-16, Scholtz 2-18, Shikongo 2-22, Frylinck 2-26) by 55 runs

Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit blasted Namibia out of a desperate situation, then their seamers scythed their way through Sri Lanka’s batting order – Ben Shikongo taking two wickets in two balls inside the powerplay, while David Wiese and Frylinck also made key breakthroughs.

In the end, the match wasn’t even close. Sri Lanka, never having seemed on top of the chase of 164, could not get a partnership going – Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Dasun Shanaka mustering the best of their innings, with 34. Namibia’s bowlers kept mixing up their pace on a slow Geelong surface that rewarded pace off the ball. Sri Lanka’s batters kept holing out. They were eventually all out for 108 at the end of the 19th over.

Namibia, meanwhile, had pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in the history of their men’s side. In the last T20 World Cup, they’d beaten Full Member Ireland to make it into the main draw. This time, they’ve taken down the freshly-crowned Asia Cup champions, and a side that had won their last five successive T20Is.