The heroic performance of veteran cricketer David Wiese helped push Namibia to claim a thrilling victory over Oman in a super over on day one of the ICC T20 World Cup.
Wiese hit 13 runs off four balls in the first super over before defending the 22-run target sensationally by tightening the screws with the ball to restrict Oman to just 10 runs in reply.
Namibia needed seven runs from the last nine balls to win the match in regulation, but Mehrah Khan’s stunning bowling performance saw the game extended into a super over.
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Captain Gerhard Erasmus stepped up to the challenge in partnership with Wiese, putting the final two balls away for boundaries to take his team to a total of 1/21 from the super over to set up the victory.
The match was virtually sealed after the first three deliveries from Wiese in defence of Namibia’s super over total, with Naseem Kushi only managing two runs before he was stumped.
“What a champion” one fan wrote on X.
“David Wiese is still carrying the Namibia Cricket Team at the age of 39,” another wrote.
“David Wiese is the monster of Namibia,” said another.
Meanwhile, Ruben Trumpelmann bagged four wickets for Namibia, with two coming from his first two balls. The 26-year-old smashed Omanis opener Kashyap Prajapati with an lbw for a golden duck, followed by a toe-crusher delivery to axe skipper Aquib Ilyas for a duck.
Oman was 109 all out in 19.4 overs, with Zeeshan Maqsood surviving Namibia’s hat-trick ball before he was caught comfortably by Gerhard Erasmus.
Both teams celebrated their third T20 World Cup appearance in the tournament’s third match, with Namibia competing in 2021 and 2022, while Oman qualified in 2016 and 2021.
Wiese claimed he “aged a couple of years” while competing in the super over on Monday (AEST), with his efforts earning him the player of the match title.
“I’ve aged a couple of years tonight. I don’t have a lot of years left in me,” he laughed.
“It was an emotionally draining evening. It helped that I had a feel of the game and knew if I got a few hits out in the super over, then with the ball we would [be okay].
“The pitch was difficult [to perform on] and we didn’t play the way we thought but we adapted well.
“It was a two-paced match and it was a difficult wicket to get yourself in – definitely one you needed to spend a bit of time with before capitalising.
“It was difficult to gauge a good target because if you’re chasing 180 then you’d play differently. But when you let them bowl the way they did, you bring them back into the game. Lots of learnings from this game.”
Namibia will face Scotland on Friday, June 7 (AEST) for their second match of the tournament.
Match one: Thursday June 6, Australia v Oman at Kensington Oval, Barbados. Play starts at 10:30am (AEST).
Match two: Sunday June 9, Australia v England at Kensington Oval, Barbados. Play starts at 3:00am (AEST).
Match three: Wednesday June 12, Australia v Namibia at Kensington Oval, Barbados. Play starts at 10:30am (AEST).
Match four: Sunday June 16, Australia v Scotland at Kensington Oval, Barbados. Play starts at 10:30am (AEST).
Match one: June 21, v D2 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua. Play starts at 10:30am (AEST).
Match two: June 23, v C1 at Arnos Vale Ground, St Vincent. Play starts at 10:30am (AEST).
Match three: June 25, v A1 at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia. Play starts at 12:30am (AEST).
Semi-final one: June 27 at Brian Lara Academy, Trinidad. Play starts at 10:30am (AEST).
Semi-final two: June 28 at Providence Stadium, Guyana. Play starts at 12:30am (AEST).
Final: June 30 at Kensington Oval, Barbados. Play starts at 12:30am (AEST).
All matches will be streamed live on Amazon’s Prime Video.
AUSTRALIAN T20 SQUAD: (C) Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, MArcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
Travelling reserves: Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk.
Group A: Canada, India, Ireland, Pakistan, United States
Group B: Australia, England, Namibia, Oman, Scotland
Group C: Afghanistan, New Zealand, PNG, Uganda, West Indies
Group D: Bangladesh, Nepal, Netherlands, South Africa, Sri Lanka
The 2024 men’s T20 World Cup is the largest in the tournaments history with 20 teams playing 55 matches across nine major cities.
The United States are sharing host duties with six nations in the Caribbean with 16 first-round games split between locations in New York, Dallas and Lauderhill.
Barbados, Guyana Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, will also host matches.
2022: England won in Australia.
2021: Australia won in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
2016: West Indies won in India.
2014: Sri Lanka won in Bangladesh.
2012: West Indies won in Sri Lanka.
The tournament has four stages – an initial group stage followed by the Super Eights, the semi-finals and then the final.
In the group stage, teams receive two points for a win and one point for a loss. In the event of a tie, a super over will be played to decide the winner.
The top two teams from each pool will advance into the Super Eight.
Group one: Winner Pool A, Winner Pool C, Runner-up Pool B, Runner-up Pool D
Group two: Winner Pool B, Winner Pool D, Runner-up Pool A, Runner-up Pool C