Namibia pulled off a stunning win as the Gerhard Erasmus-led side thrashed reigning Asian champions Sri Lanka in the opening Round 1 game of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at Kardinia Park in Geelong. Namibia made a stunning comeback as they recovered from 93 for six in the 15th over to post a challenging total of 163 for seven in 20 overs.
Jan Frylinck (44 off 28) and JJ Smit (31 not out off 16) stole the show with their performance in the death overs, sharing a brilliant partnership of 69-run stand-off 33 balls to raise concerns in the Sri Lankan dressing room. While defending, Namibia managed to bundle out Sri Lanka for 108 runs in 19 overs. Ben Shikongo, Bernard Scholtz, Jan Frylinck, and David Wiese picked two wickets each for Namibia while JJ Smit took one wicket.
Soon after Namibia pulled off a stunning win, social media was flooded with amazing reactions from fans and cricketers. Among many, legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar took to Twitter and lauded the Erasmus-led side. Sachin Tendulkar posted an epic Tweet for Namibia. He wrote:
“Namibia has told the cricketing world today… “Nam” yaad rakhna!”
Check out the Tweet:
Namibia π³π¦ has told the cricketing world todayβ¦ βNamβ yaad rakhna! ππ»
β Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) October 16, 2022
Responding to this, Namibia skipper Erasmus took to the micro-blogging site, and came up with an epic reply to Tendulkar’s message with a three word Tweet. He replied: “Nam” yaad rakhna!”
Check out his reply:
Nam yaad rakhna! π³π¦π https://t.co/Y5QKFifoTg
β Gerhard Erasmus (@gerharderasmus) October 16, 2022
Meanwhile, after the stunning win, Namibia’s captain Erasmus lauded his players for the special win but said the team has a bigger goal in mind. Speaking at the post-match presser, he said:
“Incredible journey, last year was a special experience for us. We’ve started with a great win, but lot of work to do throughout this tournament still. 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.”
He added: “We understand the bigger picture as well. Credit goes to Pierre (de Bruyn) the way he has installed coaching to this team, one that’s a winning culture and one that sticks together. With the limited resources, I don’t think there’s anyone else that could run such a tight ship,”
