UAE registered their first win in the history of the tournament after beating Namibia by 7 runs in the 10th match of the first round of the T20 World Cup. Playing first, UAE team scored 148/3 while playing full over, in counter innings Namibia team could score only 141/8. UAE’s Muhammad Wasim was adjudged the player of the match.
The UAE captain won the toss and elected to bat first. The pair of Muhammad Wasim and Vriitya Arvind played slow and added 39 runs for the first wicket in eight overs. Arvind became the victim of Bernard Scholtz in the ninth over after scoring 21 runs in 32 balls. Wasim’s wicket also fell on the score of 97 and he was dismissed for 50 runs in 41 balls with the help of three sixes and a four. Alishan Sharafu could contribute only 4 runs.
From here, Captain C Rizwan and Basil Hameed batted fast and made an unbroken partnership of 35 runs in 18 balls to take the team to a respectable score. Rizwan scored 43 not out in 29 balls. His innings included three fours and a six. At the same time, Hameed played an unbeaten innings of 25 runs in 14 balls with the help of two fours and two sixes. Three Namibian bowlers got one wicket each.
Chasing the target, Namibia had a poor start and both their opening batsmen were dealt cheaply. Stefan Baard 4 and Michael van Lingen were dismissed for 10 runs. Jan Nicole Lofty-Eaton was run by Basil Hameed on a personal score of 1 run. Captain Gerhard Erasmus tried to stay for a while. He scored 16 runs in 18 balls. JJ Smit was dismissed for 3 runs and thus Namibia lost their five wickets within fifty runs. A few more wickets fell from here but for the eighth wicket, David VJ and Reuben Trumpelmann batted vigorously and took the match till the last over.
14 runs were needed to win in the last over. Four runs came off the first three balls and under pressure VJ played a big shot on the fourth ball but was caught at long on. There were no big shots in the last two balls and Namibia lost. VJ scored the highest 55 runs. Trumpelmann remained unbeaten on 25 runs.
