Namibia emerged victorious in the first match of their 2024 T20 World Cup season against Oman in the super-over played at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. The bowlers shined and scored their first victory against Oman even after the sluggish performance of the batting order. David Wiese and Gerhard Erasmus set the stage for the super over smashing 21 runs and then further limited Oman to a score of 10 in the super over marking a victory of 11 runs.
Oman batted first and were all out for 109 in 19.4 overs at the Kensington Oval. Namibia, chasing the same target, also finished at 109, with Jan Frylinck scoring 45 off 48 balls and Mehran Khan taking 3 wickets for 7 runs. This tie led the game into a Super Over.
Super Over Highlights
Super over that led Namibia to win their first match beating Oman by 11 runs in Barbados. Namibia is part of Group B and played their first match of the season on 2 June, winning against Oman the Namibia squad sealed two points and is moving ahead to look for more wins.
Starting the super over from Namibia, Wiese took on the crease and smashed a full delivery outside off-stump through the covers. The next ball was an easy full toss, and he hit it for a six-over long-on.
Namibia’s suqad captain, Gerhard Erasmus, hit the second-to-last ball through square leg for a boundary, then squeezed a yorker past short third man. This gave Namibia the highest score in a T20 World Cup Super Over, this was the batting lineup they played but when this turned to the bowling, wiese bowled and gave only two runs in the first two balls before Naseem Khushi hit the stumps.
Innings | Team | Score | Overs |
First | Oman | 109/10 | 19.4 |
Second | Namibia | 109/6 | 20.0 |
Playing in their third straight T20 World Cup, Namibia aims to build on past successes. In 2021, they reached the Super 12s, surpassing Ireland and the Netherlands. In 2022, they beat Sri Lanka but didn’t advance further. They secured a spot in the 2024 T20 World Cup by winning all six games in the Africa qualifier. With England and Australia in their group, their best chance to reach the Super 8s is by defeating Oman and Scotland and causing an upset.
By defeating Oman they are already advancing their journey in the T20 World Cup and it would be interesting to note their further advancements under the leadership of Gerhard Erasmus.