The winners of the Asia Cup 2022, Sri Lanka thrashed away the big teams like India and Pakistan in the Asian battle. They reached the final smoothly and gave Babar Azam and co hard times to lift the trophy. However, they failed severely versus the underdogs in Namibia in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 opener.
The first match of the marquee event's Group Stage took place on Sunday, seeing Sri Lanka opting to chase on winning the toss. The decision did not at all turned to be fruitful for them as they failed in both depart, bowling and batting.
Their bowlers could manage seven wickets of Gerhard Erasmus' line-up. Maheesh Theekshana stayed the top performer from their side from either of the departs, shining with a single scalp at an economy of 5.75. The rest sustained economies above six, and the batters failed to do wonders either.
As far as the Namibian side is concerned, although the top order collapsed, the rest of the batters equally made an impact. Loftie-Eaton's 20 from 12, Jan Frylinck's 44 from 28, and most of all, JJ Smith's 31 from 16 balls let them set 163 on the board.
However, with their bowlers rocking, they set down Sri Lanka on a low total of 108, with one over to go. The top bowler was David Wiese, who plucked two wickets, giving away only 16 runs, whereas Bernand Scholtz, for an equal number of wickets, conceded 18 runs.
Sri Lanka are next scheduled to lock horns with UAE. On the other hand, Namibia will tackle the Netherlands. Both matches will take place on October 18th.
