Namibia began their T20 World Cup campaign with a dramatic Super Over win over Oman at Kensington Oval.
The closely fought battle ended with both teams on 109 runs each, leading to a super over eliminator. This was the second super over in T20 world cup history and the first ever between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Kandy in 2012.
Namibia who opted to field first had little trouble against an aggressive bowling display from Oman, eventually being bowled out for 109 runs off 19.4 overs.When Ruben Trumpelmann, Namibia’s South African-born left-arm quickie, dismissed two batsmen on consecutive balls at the start of a match, he broke new ground in T20I history.
In his opening over, Trumpelmann removed Kashyap Prajapati and Oman skipper Aqib Ilyas without troubling the scorers, thereby setting up Namibia’s disciplined bowling performance.
Trumpelmann ended with impressive figures of 4/21 while David Wiese chipped in with 3/28. The pick of the lot for Oman was Khalid Kail who top-scored with an unbeaten knock of 34 off 39 balls.
On their part, Namibia faced a stiff challenge as they were pushed back by some resilient efforts from Oman’s bowlers throughout their chase. While Jan Frylinck tried to hold things together at one end with his patient knock of 45 off as many balls, Mehran Khan’s (3/7) brilliant effort kept the pressure on Namibia. Eventually it finished on a par when Namibia reached Oman’s total of 109/6 in its allotted twenty overs thus forcing a Super Over.
In what happened to be the last ever T20 World Cup Super Over before this one took place twelve years ago– Gerhard Erasmus and David Wiese scored an imposing tally of twenty-one runs from their over. Wiese also took the responsibility of bowling, as he restricted Oman to only ten runs in response; thereby Nambia’s exciting win was sealed.
Oman: 109 all out in 19.4 overs (Khalid Kail 34; Ruben Trumpelmann 4/21, David Wiese 3/28).
Namibia: 109/6 in 20 overs (Jan Frylinck 45; Mehran Khan 3/7).
