New Delhi: Pakistan on Tuesday defeated Namibia by 45 runs to reach the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Pakistan is the second team after England to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Batting first in this match, Pakistan had given a big target of 190 runs to Namibia, in response to which Namibia’s team could score only 144 runs in the allotted 20 overs losing 5 wickets. The hero of Pakistan’s victory was Mohammad Rizwan and captain Babar Azam. Rizwan played an unbeaten 79 while Babar contributed 70 runs.
Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. Openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam got Pakistan off to a strong start. Babar played the captain’s innings of 70 runs. On the other hand, Mohammad Rizwan played an unbeaten innings of 79 runs. Fakhar Zaman could only score 5 runs in this match. Mohammad Hafeez remained unbeaten on 32. John Freelink and David Wiese took a wicket each for Namibia.
Chasing the target of 190 runs, Namibia did not have a good start and Van Lingen was dismissed for 4 runs. After this, the second wicket of Namibia fell for 55 runs. David Wiese scored an unbeaten 43 for Namibia. Apart from him, Craig Williams contributed 40 and Stephen Bard contributed 29 runs. Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan took one wicket each for Pakistan
Pakistan Playing XI: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi
Namibia Playing XI: Stephen Bard, Michael van Lingen, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (c), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Jan Nicol Lofty-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelman, Jen Greene (wk), Jan Frylinck, Ben Shikongo
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