Sri Lanka in shock loss to Namibia
Sri Lanka was shocked by Namibia by. 55 runs in today’s D/N curtain raiser of the T20 World Cup in Australia’s Kardina Park Geelong. Sri Lanka was bowled out for 108 in 19 overs in reply to Namibia’s tall score of 163 for 7 off 20 with the less fancied Namibians out playing favourites Sri Lanka in the batting and bowling.
Sri Lanka floundered in letting Namibia off the hook as the underdogs recovered from 63 for 6 on a telling seventh wicket partnership of 70 off 34 balls between Jan Frylinck who struck 44 off 28 and J.J. Smit who reeled off an unbeaten 31 off 16.
The Lankan run chase came apart to the guile of Namibia’s slow pace with both openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis falling for 9 and 6 followed by Danuska Gunathilaka for a duck and Dhananjaya de Silva for 12. Bhanuka Rajapaksa 20 and skipper Dasun Shanaka 29 added 34 for the fifth wicket but it wasn’t enough to pull the side out of the rut with Rajapaksa’s dismissal Sri Lanka 74 for 5 and at 88 for 8 hopes fading away. Namibia’s Frylinck followed up his batting performance with 2 for 26 for the Player of the Match award.
CHIEF SCORES: Namibia 163/7 (20 Overs) (Jan Frylinck 44, J J. Smit n.o. 31, Stephan Baard 26, Jan Nicol Lottie Eaton 20, Gerhard Erusmus 20, Pramod Madushan Liyanagamage 2/37, Maheesh Theekshana 1/23, Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva 1/27, Chamika Karunaratne 1/36, Dushmantha Chameera 1/39) Sri Lanka 108 All out (19 Overs) (Dasun Shanaka 29, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 20, Dhananjaya de Silva 12, Maheesh Theekshana n.o. 11, David Wieser 2/16, Bernard Scholtz 2/18, Ben Shikongo 2/22, Jon Frylinck 2/26, J.J. Smit 1/16).
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