Namibia v Oman
Scorecard
Toss: Namibia won the toss and elected to bowl first
Defending 110, Bilal Khan gave Oman the perfect start, bowling opener Michael van Lingen for a duck off the very second ball of the innings. While both Nikolaas Davin and Jan Frylinck tried to go for their shots, they were troubled by the uneven bounce in the initial stages of the chase.
The duo managed to preserve their wicket despite a number of hits and misses, and Namibia were 32/1 at the end of the powerplay period. Thereafter, skipper Aqib Ilyas employed spinners and medium pacers to take the pace off the ball. As the runs dried up, Davin tried to take on Aqib’s spin. After seven dot balls in a row, Aqib was dispatched for a six by Davin. However, the wily spinner had his revenge off the very next ball when he had Davin caught by Mohammad Nadeem.
Disciplined spin bowling from Aqib and Zeeshan Maqsood put brakes on Namibia’s scoring rate in the middle overs. For his part, Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus tried to keep the scoring rate closer to run a ball along with Frylinck. The game of nerves saw Oman drop crucial catches but eventually, Maqsood held one off Ayaan Khan to dismiss Erasmus (13) in the 15th over.
The set Frylinck took initiative at this stage and hit a flurry of boundaries to bring the asking rate at par with three overs remaining.