In their initial ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 match, Namibia defeated Oman thanks to David Wiese’s heroics in the Super Over, but Mehran Khan’s amazing spell helped Oman draw the game.
Wiese bravery wins for Namibia
Taking advantage of Bilal Khan’s pace, David Wiese and Gerhard Erasmus struck four boundaries, shaving 21 runs off Namibia’s allocated Super Over.
Wiese shone with the ball for the Eagles, allowing just 10 runs and taking the wicket of big-hitting Naseem Khushi after slamming 13 off 4 in the Super Over.
Previously: Oman battle ties the match.
Bilal Khan gave Oman the perfect start by dismissing opener Michael van Lingen for a duck on the opening ball of the innings, while the team was defending 110. The uneven bounce in the early stages of the pursuit bothered Jan Frylinck and Nikolaas Davin as they attempted to go for their shots.
Despite several hits and misses, the pair held onto their wicket, and at the conclusion of the powerplay, Namibia were 32/1. After that, captain Aqib Ilyas used medium pacers and spinners to slow down the ball’s pace. Davin attempted to match Aqib’s spin as the runs stopped coming.
Davin hit Aqib for a six after seven consecutive dot balls. But on the very next ball, the cunning spinner exacted his revenge by having Davin caught by Mohammad Nadeem.
Aqib and Zeeshan Maqsood’s disciplined spin bowling restrained Namibia’s scoring rate in the middle overs. Along with Frylinck, Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus attempted to maintain a closer scoring pace. Oman missed vital catches in the nerve-wracking match, but in the fifteenth over, Maqsood held off Ayaan Khan to dismiss Erasmus (13).
With three overs remaining, the set Frylinck took the initiative and hit a flurry of boundaries to put the asking rate up to par. Mehran Khan’s outstanding eighteenth over resulted in just four byes and the wicket of JJ Smit. David Wiese’s six in the nineteenth over contributed to the equation reaching five off the last over.
In the first three balls of the last over, Mehran, who had only conceded four runs in the first two overs, increased his wicket total from one to three, bowling Frylinck and trapping Zane Green (0) lbw. Eventually, the aggressive Wiese and the cunning Mehran faced off in a two-off match. The wicket-keeper mishandled the ball, giving the batters a bye even though Wiese was unable to make contact. There was a Super Over in the game. In his three overs, Mehran conceded just seven runs for three wickets.
Trumpelmann Special travels via Oman.
In Barbados, Erasmus chose to field first after winning the toss. The fact that his team had to bat first didn’t bother opposite number Aqib Ilyas, who thought that his team would have better scoring opportunities because the ball would come to him well.
Within the first over of the act, Ruben Trumpelmann got involved. With a perfect yorker, he caught Oman opener Kashyap Prajapati leg before wicket for a duck on the opening ball. He bowled another brilliant yorker off the very next delivery, taking Oman captain Aqib Ilyas off guard, and the batter was leg before wicket for a duck.
When Naseem Khushi attempted to move the left-arm pacer down the track in his second over, he could only locate Erasmus at mid-off. This gave the left-arm pacer a third. Zeeshan Maqsod, a seasoned player, stabilized the Oman innings and increased the scoring rate to run a ball during the first Powerplay.
But to further hurt Oman, Bernard Scholtz had him leg before wicket in the seventh over. The tweakers’ methodical bowling made sure that Oman’s lower order didn’t exploit the change in pace. Even though Oman batters were having trouble getting the ball past the inner circle, Scholtz and Erasmus were still turning double-figure innings for the Eagles.
Between the 10th and 17th overs, Oman failed to hit a single boundary for a total of 44 deliveries. When Namibian pacers entered the game in the final overs, the Asian team attempted to pick up the scoring rate, but David Wiese and Trumpelmann chipped away at the tail and bowled Oman out before they could finish their allotted number of overs.
