T20 World Cup 2021: Match 36, New Zealand vs Namibia – Who Said What

The 36^th match of the T20 World Cup 2021 was played between Namibia and New Zealand in Sharjah. While nothing was at stake for Namibia, Kiwis had yet another chance of making their case strong for the semi-final and they won the contest by 52 runs. The coin landed in Namibia’s favour and they asked the men in black to unfold their batting show first.

Batting first, New Zealand posted good 163 runs on the board in their allotted quota of 20 overs. While there weren’t any big innings from a particular player, all the batters contributed with their little shows to make it a big affair. Glenn Phillips and Jimmy Neesham stood out with their 39* off 21 and 35* off 23 to push up the side. Skipper Gerhard Erasmus was best from Namibia’s bowling side as he conceded just 22 runs to get a scalp.

Trent Boult and Tim Southee makes New Zealand’s case strong

While Namibia started chasing up the target, at least one of the batters was required to pace up the show but it certainly didn’t happen for them. Most of them kept moving with a run-a-ball show. Van Lingen’s 25 runs were the highest individual score from their end. Trent Boult and Tim Southee picked two wickets each with a perfect economy of 5.00 and 3.80.

Player of the match, James Neesham said:

It was a two-paced wicket, there were talks about the repercussions if we had lost today, but we were not thinking about the wicket, we needed to do well and the key for us was to set a par total, the way we went out there and played on a challenging surface, I’m pleased with it. We were just trying to get bat on ball as much as possible, the boundaries were tough, we were also targeting the shorter side, we thought anything more than 150 would be pretty good. I’m fresh and I can bowl four if required, but we do have five specialists and I make up the sixth, I’m happy and ready to bowl when needed.

Winning skipper, Kane Williamson said:

I think we all know what we have to expect here. We tried to maximise that short side, it was a challenging surface. The guys played to get us 160. An over or two can crack the game, that was our focus. They are a strong side and they have played good cricket, they have some match winners. Looking forward to that challenge.

Losing skipper, Gerhard Erasmus said:

I thought we bowled well for a while, the death overs didn’t go according to the plan. We got one more game so we need to try and nail that. It was quite a tough pitch though. 160 was a bit too much on that wicket.