Namibia kept their nerves calm as they beat Scotland by four wickets in the final over of a tense Super 12s match at the Men’s T20 World Cup.
Namibia, who like Scotland is competing at this stage for the first time, stuttered a little as they chase a low 110 target but managed to sneak home the match in the last over in Abu Dhabi.
They were 67-4 at one stage and their scoring ground to a halt as two more wickets fell late on, but JJ Smit hit an unbeaten 32 from 23 balls to seal victory with a six-over point.
Scotland was left ruing a horror start with the bat before they were scuttled to 109-8, largely thanks to Michael Leask’s 27-ball 44.
George Munsey was bowled by the first ball of the match and Scotland was 2-3 when Ruben Trumpelmann took two more wickets in the opening over.
Humbled by Afghanistan in their opening Super 12 game, Scotland faces New Zealand, India, and Pakistan in their remaining Group 2 fixtures.
Namibia had never won a World Cup match before this tournament but can now add this triumph to the historic victories against the Netherlands and Ireland which took them through the qualifying round.
Namibia came into the game as slight underdogs, ranked 16th in the world to Scotland’s 12th, but, despite their wobble with the bat, ended the match posing for photographs after another landmark victory.
When their captain Gerhard Erasmus was bowled by left-arm spinner Leask and opener Craig Williams was stumped down the leg side off Mark Watt in the 12th and 13th overs respectively, there was an outside chance of a Scotland victory. Smit remained calm, even when David Wiese fell for 16 with 8 runs still to add on board.
The fiery left-arm seamer found swing and utilized it well. After Munsey played on, Calum MacLeod edged behind and Richie Berrington – Scotland’s stand-in captain with Kyle Coetzer sidelined by a finger injury – was dismissed to a ball that nipped back.
Leask’s hard-hitting innings, which included four fours and two sixes, rescued Scotland to repeat their 60 all out against Afghanistan.
Leask also took 2-12 with the bowl. Had Scotland batters added 20 more runs, their bowling display might have been enough.
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus said, “It’s been emotional coming through the group stage. We put those emotions away for a bit. The boys put in an excellent performance.”
The skipper added, “It’s a very proud moment and we’ll savor with the small group of people here and all the Namibians back home. It’s a small but proud country.”
Scotland stand-in captain Richie Berrington said, “It’s been a disappointing day for us. We were probably 20 or 30 runs short. It’s pretty hard to recover after a first over like that.
Berrington gave Credit to Namibia saying, “They put us under pressure. We struggled to recover and couldn’t get the score in the first innings.”
Player of the match Ruben Trumpelmann said, “I really enjoyed myself out there. It’s awesome under the lights. It’s the World Cup so why not enjoy it? This victory means a lot for the team. Hopefully, we’ll get a few more. This is massive for us.”
