T20 World Cup 2022: Latest news, scores from Namibia v Sri Lanka and Netherlands v UAE

With nine cricket fields in the entire country, Namibia defeating the Asian Cup champion couldn’t have seemed more farfetched — until it didn’t. Crash Craddock’s thoughts on an almighty upset.

Namibia's Gerhard Erasmus (R) and Ben Shikongo celebrate.

Cricket’s World Cup has its first cult heroes ... the wonder boys from Windhoek.

Namibia’s defeat of Sri Lanka by 55 runs in the first match of the preliminary World Cup rounds today in Geelong was just the sort of result this part of the tournament needed, an upset of major proportions.

Recent Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka were beaten by a country which, according to Cricinfo, has just nine cricket fields, and a population (2.5 million) roughly the same as Brisbane.

Many Australian cricket teams who visit South Africa developed a major liking for Windhoek beer named after Namibia’s capital city and there deserved to be a raised glass or two in that nations dressing room after their finest win.

Namibia batted first and looked eye-ball deep in trouble at 6-93 before Jan Frylinck, who once played under-19s for South Africa, swatted 44 off 28 and JJ Smit clubbed 31 off 16 to hoist them to 7-163.

Namibia's JJ Smit (right) and teammates celebrate the wicket of Sri Lanka's Chamika Karunaratne.

Sri Lanka seemed off-balanced and panic stricken from the start and folded for 108 with captain Dusan Shanake top-scoring with 29.

Soccer is big in African nation Namibia, so is track and field. Cricket has to fight for its space and it fights hard, proudly trumpeting the increase in junior numbers at schools.

But the fight is never easy and the national team is essentially chosen from 100 grade cricketers, many of whom were schooled South Africa.

Namibia's Jan Frylinck (L) celebrates the wicket of Sri Lanka's Dhananjaya de Silva.

Namibian players celebrate the wicket of Sri Lanka's Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

A recent survey concluded that Namibia was the 21st most popular cricket nation on the planet, squeezed in between Hong Kong and Singapore but below Kuwait and Papua New Guinea.

That ranking will have a bullet beside it today.

This was an upset but not a fluke.

Sri Lanka were given a Category A spanking by a team who batted with tremendous hustle to after balls flew everywhere in the closing overs.

Then they bowled with impressive precision to completely throttle Sri Lanka’s batting line-up. Their catching was sharp and flawless.

Namibia call themselves the Eagles because the eagle is “proud, inspiring and courageous in its hunt, yet selfless.’’

The motto summed up their performance. There are times when emerging teams can be flukey and flakey but Namibia looked like a team of old sweats, drilling down on their line and lengths, swinging the ball, setting clever fields and leaving nothing to chance.

Their coaching staff includes experienced South African brothers Albie and Morne Morkel who sat coolly in the grandstand watching a performance of great professionalism.

They are stocked with South African coaches and played in the best images of those skilled, well-drilled South Africa sides who were so hard to beat.

The result is not curtains for Sri Lanka for two teams from their side of the draw – which also includes the Netherlands and the UAE - in the early pool games will progress to the main draw in a week’s time.

Namibian players celebrate their win.

A reminder that before today, Namibia's biggest scalp in T20 or ODI cricket is a win over Ireland last year. #T20WorldCup

— Scott Bailey (@ScottBaileyAAP) October 16, 2022

Asia Cup champions are in big trouble, 20 for 3 while chasing 164 against Namibia.

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 16, 2022

What an upset we have on our hands here ..... Namibia are on fire, fielding like they own the stadium.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 16, 2022

Namibia's JJ Smit (right) celebrates a wicket with Gerhard Erasmus.

Namibia's Jan Frylinck (left) and JJ Smit’s late hitting turned momentum.

Netherlands edge UAE in low-scoring thriller

Bowlers led by Bas de Leede helped the Netherlands edge out the United Arab Emirates by three wickets in a tense low-scoring match of the Twenty20 World Cup.

Skipper Scott Edwards stood unbeaten on 16 as the Netherlands chased down its target of 112 with one ball to spare in the second match of the day in Geelong.

UAE pace spearhead Junaid Siddique returned figures of 3-24 and put the opposition in trouble with two wickets in the 14th over but Edwards held his nerve to get his team off to a win in round one.

De Leede, an all-rounder who is a pace bowler, led the charge with his three wickets to keep the UAE to 111-8.

Electing to bat, the UAE batsmen survived the disciplined Dutch attack albeit scoring slowly as they reached 85-2 in 15 overs with Muhammad Waseem making 41 before falling to pace spearhead Fred Klaassen.

Netherlands' Scott Edwards hits the winning runs against UAE in Geelong. Picture: AFP

The wicket triggered a collapse as de Leede struck three times in the 19th over as the UAE slipped from 91-2 and managed just 26 runs in the final five overs.

In reply, Vikramjit Singh got out for 10 but Max O’Dowd hit 23 off 18 balls to get the team off to a quick start.

Junaid bowled O’Dowd in the sixth over and the Netherlands suddenly lost wickets in a heap to lose control of their modest chase.

Junaid struck twice in the space of three balls including Tom Cooper (8) and Roelof van der Merwe (0) and nearly had a third when skipper Chundangapoyil Rizwan dropped a catch at cover.

The spill proved costly as Edwards and Tim Pringle put on 27 runs and sneaked home in the final over.