T20 World Cup: Sri Lanka beat Namibia by 7 wickets
Sri Lanka thrash debutants Namibia as early as 13th over.
ABU DHABI (Dunya News) - Sri Lanka clinch victory against Namibia chasing down 97 runs target in their first match of T20 World Cup played in Sheikh Zayed Stadium of Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Batting first, Namibia posted a total of 96/10. Namibia s inning ended at 19.2 overs when Pathum Nissanka run out Bernard Scholtz (0).
Craig Williams was the highest scorer for Namibia securing 29 runs off 36 balls while eight players from Namibia couldn t enter into double figures.
The young Maheesh Theekshana, who made his international debut for Sri Lanka just in the last month, stood out by taking the highest number of wickets for Sri Lanka. The right arm off-break bowler dismissed three Namibia players while Lahiru Kumara and Wanindu Hasaranga took two wickets each.
In the chase, Sri Lanka lost their first wicket as early as 1.5 overs when Ruben Trumpelmann dismissed Kusal Perera (11) and another of Pathum Nissanka (5) at 2.6 overs.
Jonathan Smit provided a huge wicket of dangerman Dinesh Chandimal (5) that too, couldn t dismantle Sri Lanka as they continued hitting strikes.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Avishka remained unstoppable with the bat as they together put up a stirring partnership of 74 runs.
The unbreakable partnership that came after the third wicket helped Sri Lanka soar towards the target.
Maheesh Theekshana became player of the match for his three wickets against 25 runs.
Earlier the day, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first against Namibia.
It was the second match of the day in Abu Dhabi after Ireland thrashed the Netherlands in the Group A opener.
