Erasmus takes debutants Namibia into Super 12

Namibia’s Gerhard Erasmus en route his 53 not out v Ireland yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

Gerhard Erasmus led from the front with a well-crafted unbeaten fifty to guide debutants Namibia to a historic eight-wicket win over Ireland in the first round Group A match and qualification spot in Super 12s of the T20 World Cup here on Friday.

Erasmus (53 not out off 49 balls) guided Namibia's chase of 126 in the company of David Wiese, who made an unbeaten 28.

Quiet start

Namibia made a quiet start to their chase. Boundaries were hard to come by for Namibia batters as they dealt mostly in singles and twos. Their struggle can be gauged from the fact that they found the fence only four times in the first 10 overs, scoring 49 for one. Needing 77 off the last 10 overs, Erasmus and Zane Green (24) shared 48 runs for the second wicket to keep Namibia in the contest.

The duo played sensibly and brought down the equation to 55 off 42 balls and with nine wickets in hand, Namibia were clear favourites to win the contest. But Green failed to clear Kevin O'Brien at mid-off to make the contest interesting.

After his two wickets with the ball, Wiese came to Namibia's rescue by hitting Craig Young for back-to-back sixes in the 15th over to bring down the equation to 33 off the last five overs.

Needing 21 off 18 balls, Erasmus lofted off-spinner Simi Singh over the long-off boundary and then struck two boundaries in the 19th over off Craig Young to finish off the chase in style with nine balls remaining.

Netherlands all out for 44

Sri Lanka beat Netherlands by eight wickets in their final first round match. Already through to the Super 12s before Friday's match, Sri Lanka bundled out Netherlands for just 44 runs in 10 overs. The Sri Lankans then chased down the paltry target in 7.1 overs.

Brief scores
Ireland 125-8 in 20 overs (P Stirling 38; J Frylinck 3-21, D Wiese 2-22) lost to Namibia 126-2 in 18.3 overs (G Erasmus 53', Wiese 28'; C Campher 2-14) by 8 wickets

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