T20 World Cup 2021: Match 31, Pakistan vs Namibia – Who Said What

Pakistan continued to fly high, slamming their fourth victory on the trot as they cut Namibia 45 runs short after setting up a whopping 189/2 on the back of seventies from Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam. Much of Pakistan’s recent short-format success has been down to this duo, and they were at it again, notching up their fifth-century stand in T20Is.

Going into the contest, Pakistan had hardly anything much to worry about, and even things that might have mildly concerned them were taken care of with Hasan Ali getting back his form after an indifferent run in the tournament thus far. Also, unlike the previous three wins when Pakistan batted second and effected successful chases, skipper Babar chose to tick the unticked box by opting to defend a target on November 2.

Babar won his fourth toss on the bounce and found himself and Rizwan against a charged-up Namibian pace unit. Rizwan ended up playing a maiden upfront off Ruben Trumpelmann and Namibia had things under control for until the halfway mark of Pakistan innings, with them scoring under run-a-ball. However, in stark contrast to the first half that produced merely 59 runs, Pakistan smothered 130 in the last next 10 to set up a daunting challenge in front of Namibia.

Having got his eyes in, Azam upped the ante with some glorious strokes on the off-side, notching up his 24th T20I half-century off 39 deliveries. The first success for Namibia arrived not before the 15th over of the innings when Azam (70 off 49, with seven fours) perished to David Wiese. Jan Frylinck then removed Fakhar Zaman for 5 in the immediately following over courtesy of a sensational catch behind by the wicketkeeper. But the real carnage unfolded from there, with Mohammad Hafeez and Rizwan toying around with the bowlers.

Hafeez’s 32 came off 16 balls, including five fours, while Rizwan, who by now was seeing the ball five times its real size, demolished JJ Smit in the final over by picking 24 runs to stand unbeaten on 79 off 50. He struck four sixes and eight fours in his scintillating knock.

Having shown the fight initially with the bowl, Namibia did not give up with the bat despite a tough task at hands of chasing nearly 10 each over.  Hasan Ali struck early to clean up Michael van Lingen, before Stephen Baard and Craig Williams settled the innings. Baard was eventually run-out for a run-a-ball 29, while Shadab Khan got Williams caught Williams for 40.

Namibia never had an impactful knock needed to fancy a target of that magnitude, and even as David Wiese, who smacked three boundaries and a couple of sixes in his unbeaten 31-ball 43, showed some intent, they were eventually restricted well short in the end. Each one of Haris Rauf, Shadab, Imad Wasim and Hasan Ali picked a wicket each.

Losing skipper Gerhard Erasmus:

We knew from the start that Pakistan have high quality players and are an in-form team. They have played like title-contenders to be fair. We talked about being better for longer periods. I thought that after 11 overs, they were excellent in their shot selection. Their quality shone through in the end. Doesn’t get easier after this, New Zealand are a quality side too. Hope we can take lessons from this and compete better. It’s a great exposure for our players. Shows that more exposure you get, more comfortable you will be at this level. We haven’t played a lot at this level. The finger is getting better.

Winning skipper Babar Azam:

It’s really good, we’re maintaining our winning momentum. We wanted to do things differently today, test our batting. Conditions were tough early on, they bowled well and we wanted to take the partnership deep. The way Hafeez batted and got into form, it was important for us as he is a key player. Hasan Ali was given the new ball as conditions were suitable. If you need to win tournaments, you need to be consistent across all departments. The fielding was a bit lax, there was dew, so that’s an area to improve. Need to keep improving and irrespective of whom we face in the semifinal, we want to maintain the same intensity.

Player of the Match Mohammad Rizwan:

It was difficult to bat initially and conditions proved to be very tricky for both of us (Me and Babar). Even when we tried to play normal shots or big hits, it just didn’t work out and then we decided to take it deep and attack at the end. But that said, I want to give the credit to the (Namibia) bowlers because they kept bowling in the same area at the start and bowled really well. Hafeez’s innings gave us the momentum and he kept telling me to stay patient and in the last over I decided to go hard and got some useful runs. We are gelling well as a team and have ticked all the boxes and will see what lies ahead for us.