Wiese propels Namibia to nervy opening win

Source: Trinidad Guardian

BRIDGETOWN - A Play­er-of-the-Match per­for­mance from David Wiese en­abled Namib­ia to hold their nerve in a low-scor­ing con­test and clinch a Su­per Over win against Oman in the ICC Men's Twen­ty20 World Cup on Sun­day in Bar­ba­dos.

The 39-year-old, South Africa-born all-rounder smashed 13 not out and en­abled the Namib­ians to score 21 with­out loss in the Su­per Over be­fore he re­turned with the ball and re­strict­ed the Oma­n­is to 10 for one in re­ply in their Group B match un­der the lights at Kens­ing­ton Oval.

"I def­i­nite­ly aged a cou­ple of years tonight," he said. "And I don't have a lot of years left in me. It was an emo­tion­al­ly drain­ing.

"It helped that I had a feel of the game and knew if I get a few hits out in the Su­per Over ... then with the ball, felt like tak­ing the ball and ex­e­cut­ing. The pitch was dif­fi­cult and didn't play the way we thought. But we adapt­ed well."

The match went in­to over­time af­ter the African side botched what ap­peared to be a straight­for­ward run chase of 110 when they en­ter the fi­nal over re­quir­ing on­ly five to win, and Oman pac­er Mehran Khan grabbed two wick­ets and con­ced­ed on­ly four.

Namib­ia ap­peared to be hold­ing all the aces when left-arm pac­er Ruben Trumpel­mann and Wiese shared sev­en wick­ets - and Oman were bowled out for 109 in 19.4 overs af­ter they were put in to bat on an easy-paced sur­face.

Trumpel­mann end­ed with four for 21 from his al­lot­ted four overs - in­clud­ing tak­ing the wick­ets of open­er Kashyap Pra­jap­ati and Oman cap­tain Aqib Ilyas lbw for ducks with the first two balls of the match - and Wiese sup­port­ed with three for 28 from 3.4 overs.

Oman laboured to 36 for three at the end of the Pow­er Play and were reel­ing on 60 for four at the halfway stage, but Khalil Kail hit the top score of 34 and Zee­shan Maq­sood made 22, and the gulf side crawled past 100.

Dis­ci­plined bowl­ing from Oman, led by a stun­ning spell from Khan, de­fied a top score of 45 from left-han­der Jan Frylinck and 24 from open­er Niko­laas Davin, and the gulf side fought back in the clos­ing stages to tie the match.

Khan end­ed with three for sev­en off three overs, but he was sur­pris­ing­ly not cho­sen to bowl the Su­per Over, and fel­low pac­er Bi­lal Khan was giv­en the ball, and the Namib­ians creamed his bowl­ing to set up the win.

"I think Bi­lal is one of the best bowlers you can have at this lev­el," Aqib said. "But there are days where you plan, and it doesn't ex­e­cute. He was clear, we were clear, but maybe the ball was wet, and he couldn't ex­e­cute."

Group B con­tin­ues on Tues­day at Kens­ing­ton Oval when Eng­land face Scot­land in a British der­by.

OMAN 109 all out off 19.4 overs (Khalil Kail 34, Zee­shan Maq­sood 22; Ruben Trumpel­mann 4-21, David Wiese 3-28, Ger­hard Eras­mus 2-20).

NAMIB­IA 109 for six off 20 overs (Jan Frylinck 45, Niko­laas Davin 24; Mehran Khan 3-7).

Group B: Eng­land vs Scot­land, Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos, 10.30 am

Group C: Pa­pau New Guinea vs Ugan­da, Prov­i­dence, Guyana, 7.30 pm

Group B: Aus­tralia vs Oman, Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos, 8.30 pm