Sharjah
New Zealand defeated Namibia by 52 runs in a Group 2 fixture of the ongoing T20 World Cup at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Chasing a target of 164, Namibia were restricted to 111/7 after 20 overs, courtesy a disciplined bowling performance from the Kiwi bowlers. Earlier, Glenn Phillips and James Neesham helped New Zealand to put on a total of 163/4. With New Zealand reeling at 96/4 after 16 overs, the pair added 67 runs in the last four overs.
Initially, Namibia had won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Black Caps are favorites are to finish as runner-ups from Group 2, behind table-toppers Pakistan, with two games to go.
Kane Williamson, the skipper of New Zealand, says that they knew what to expect when they came to Sharjah. Adds that the surface was a challenging one so they were looking to get to a par score and tried to exploit the shorter boundary.
Tells that they were looking to get a couple of big overs in with the bat in the end and they managed to do so. Says that Afghanistan is a fantastic team and they are playing really good cricket in this tournament, they will have to play well against them in the next game.!
The Namibian skipper, Gerhard Erasmus, thinks that they bowled well till the 16th over, but the death overs did not go their way yet again.
They will try to nail that against a good Indian side. Mentions it was quite a tough pitch and 160 runs were quite too much for today. Finishes by saying that he needs to go back home and nurse his finger.!
James Neesham is the PLAYER OF THE MATCH! He says that they did what they had to do with the bat and they were eager to win this match.
Tells that it was a tough surface to bat on so they were looking to run hard in the middle and look for boundaries less often. Adds that he is working on his bowling and he is ready whenever he is asked to bowl.—Agencies
