GEELONG: Sri Lanka’s T20 World Cup campaign suffered a disastrous start today as the former champions crashed to a 55-run loss against plucky Namibia in Geelong.
Bowled out for 108 after chasing 164 for victory, the 2014 champions Sri Lanka can afford no slip-ups in their following qualifying matches against United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and the Netherlands on Thursday.
All-rounder Jan Frylinck was man-of-the-match, top-scoring with 44 from 28 balls as Namibia put on a respectable total on a drop-in wicket.
He then picked up the wickets of Dhananjaya de Silva (12) and captain Dasun Shanaka (29) with his left-arm pace.
Sri Lanka crashed to 21 for three and their chase was all but over when Shanaka fell for 29, his team still 76 runs short with three wickets in hand.
An iconic win to mark the beginning of ICC Men's #T20WorldCup 2022
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) October 16, 2022
Watch the complete highlightshttps://t.co/vt3D0YTKiP#SLvNAM pic.twitter.com/N5UjgU1GAb
With a heavy South African flavour in their coaching, Namibia has been the big improvers among the second-tier sides and will back themselves to make another trip to the Super 12s.
