Despite a loss to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn was effusive in his praise for his inexperienced team, saying they “tested” their opponents.
Pakistan won by 45 runs, they are fourth in a row, to become the first team from Group 2 to reach the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals.
Also Read; Babar and Rizwan Pile On More Batting Records Together
Pakistan scored 189-2 in 20 overs thanks to Mohammad Rizwan’s brilliant 50-ball 79 not out and skipper Babar Azam’s 49-ball 70.
Namibia finished with a total of 144-5 from their 20 overs, with David Wiese scoring 43 not out and Craig Williams scoring 40.
De Bruyn stated that playing in the Super 12 stage has taught his team a lot.
“We’ll take the lessons we’ve learned with us,” de Bruyn said. “We played a total of 40 overs of cricket. And there were stages where we put them to the test. After ten overs, they had 59 runs on the board.”
Namibian bowlers were excellent early on, with left-arm Ruben Trumpelmann bowling a maiden over, but Pakistan piled on 130 runs in the final ten overs.
According to De Bruyn, his team has gained experience.
“And we’ll bring everything with us. It has provided us with the necessary experience and information to help us grow as a team. As a result, we are extremely pleased with that performance.”
De Bruyn hoped his team would put up a fight in their next two games against India and New Zealand.
“First and foremost, we intend to win cricket matches. But we also know that we’re up against two great cricket teams, each with their own agenda in terms of how they need to win cricket games and not lose cricket games, especially against Namibia.
“We are preoccupied with ourselves. We’re learning a lot from this experience. Tonight has taught us a lot. I thought it was a very good — well, an excellent performance with bat and ball by the Namibian team.
“We know what’s going to happen. India and New Zealand have a chance to advance to the final stages, but they must win convincingly.”
Namibia has won one of its three matches. They defeated Scotland by four wickets but were defeated by Afghanistan.
Leave a Reply