ABU DHABI – Pakistan have become the first team to guarantee qualification for the semi-finals at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 with victory over Namibia.
Pakistan racked up 189-2 and restricted Namibia’s reply to 144/5 after the Powerplay in the Group 2 clash in Abu Dhabi.
Azam’s decision to bat first after winning the toss went against the tournament trend, with teams preferring to chase throughout the World Cup so far.
But Pakistan defied the norms to build a formidable target as they bagged a fourth straight win at the World Cup to become the first team into the semi-finals.
Mohammad Rizwan top-scored with 70 off 49 balls, with his opening partner and captain Azam continuing their brilliant partnership with a 70 off his own.
Men in Green were overwhelming favourites to win today’s game as they have thrashed arch-rival India, New Zealand and Afghanistan so far. Pakistani squad is doing excellent with both the bat and ball thus far and are sitting on top of Group 2 points table with six points from three games and triumph against Namibia will officially take them into the semi-final.
Green Shirts are now the frontrunner to qualify for the knock-out stage having beaten all the big guns. With only two matches left against Namibia and Scotland, Team Green is predicted to go unbeaten to the semis and said to be the favourite to lift the trophy.
Namibia, following a four-wicket win against Scotland, lost at the hands of Afghanistan on Sunday and it will be no less than a challenge for them to end the winning streak of Pakistan.
Namibia started out well against Scotland and continued their winning run from the first round but could not keep the streak and suffered an embarrassing loss to Afghanistan.
Squads
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Namibia: Craig Williams, Michael van Lingen, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (c), Zane Green (wk), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck, Pikky Ya France, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz
T20 World Cup: Afghanistan beat Namibia by 62 runs to keep hopes for semis alive
