T20 World Cup 2022: Sri Lanka VS Namibia - Namibia wins series opener by 55 runs against Sri Lanka

They have not only defeated Sri Lanka but also dented their net run rate, thus their chances of qualifying for Super 12. 

Namibia Captain Gerhard Erasmus got emotional after the victory and said, "It's been a historic day for us. The opening day has been quite special but we want to kick on from here and qualify for the Super 12 stage."

"I'm a little bit speechless at the moment. What we just achieved is above what we thought we could do. I am just very excited at this point of time. ", said Jan Frylinck after winning the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance of 44(28) with bat and 2-36 with the ball.

Namibia got a shaky start, struggled with wickets falling and then fought hard in the end to post a respectable total. And then Namibia continued their fight with disciplined bowling, which outplayed Sri Lankan batters.

Sachin Tendulkar wrote on Twitter, "Namibia has told the cricketing world today… "Nam" yaad rakhna!".

Like Sri Lanka, they didn't get lost in 'The Australian bouncy pitches' and kept bowling short balls; Namibia understood the rise, bowled a bit fuller, and let the ball do the job.

It World Class, finished with a bat by Namibia

Batting first, Namibia struggled in the middle overs, losing wickets quickly. They had lost their six wickets at 93 in 14.2 overs. But what looked like a fragile start got a rocketing finish by Jan Frylinck, who smashed 44 runs in 28 balls, and JJ Smit, who remained unbeaten at 31 in 16 balls. 

Both of them stunned Asian Champions with 68 runs in the last five overs to take Namibia from 93/6 to 163/7 in 20 overs as bowlers looked clueless in restricting the two. 

Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga did well to control the flow of runs, but the rest of the bowlers gave away an economy of over 9.

Disciplined bowling always took away the Asia Cup winner in their strength of chasing

Sri Lanka usually bats long and carries depth in their batting order with power hitters down the order. Losing the early wicket of Kusal Mendis in the second over, Ben Shikongo sent serious shivers when he nearly picked a hat-trick to get a double-wicket maiden over. 

Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Dasun Shanaka looked to carry the team forward, but Namibia's disciplined bowling left them with limited options to play. David Wiese and Jan Frylinck kept troubling them with their variations. Apart from these two, Bernard Scholtz also was disciplined to take two wickets. 

Harsha Bhogle tweeted, "What an upset we have on our hands here ..... Namibia are on fire, fielding like they own the stadium."

A star-studded batting lineup of Sri Lanka got bundled out at 108 in 19 overs as they had no answers to Namibia's bowling. Namibia just stuck with a much fuller length and let the ball do its bit. There's a high chance that other teams will learn and replicate the trick in upcoming matches on the ground. 

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