Video of 10 Super Sixes: Match Highlights : New Zealand vs Namibia

New Zealand vs Namibia, 36th Match, Group 2, Sharjah, Nov 5 2021, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Match Result: New Zealand won by 52 runs

Player of the Match: James Neesham 

Match Report: New Zealand have jumped to the second spot in the points table as a result of this huge victory. It was a decent effort by Namibia to reduce New Zealand to 87/4, earlier in the day, however, Glenn Phillips and James Neesham had a crucial partnership as they added 76 runs in 6 overs and pivoted the Kiwis to a competitive total of 163/4.

In reply, Namibia got off to an incredible start as compared to their previous outings, as their openers added 47 runs, but with the kind of bowling attack NZ possess, chasing such a hard target was always going to be challenging. Kane Williamson made the right calls and was accurate with his bowling changes. 4

Southee came back at the right time to get Wiese and from there on it was just a formality. Boult and Southee choked Nambia as they were beaten by a big margin.

Kane Williamson | NZ captain: “I think we all know what we have to expect here (Sharjah), it’s a real scrap. We tried to maximise that short side, it was a challenging surface. The guys played well to get us to 160. You need to build those partnerships and trying to maximise towards the end.

An over or two can crack the game, that was our focus today. We got some reasonable match-ups and got what’s about par on this wicket. They (Afghanistan) are a strong side and they have played good cricket, they have some match winners throughout their team. Looking forward to that challenge.

It’s a different venue so we need to make those adjustments quickly, it’s the nature of this tournament. You got to play at different venues and adjust quickly.”

Gerhard Erasmus | Namibia captain: “I thought we bowled well for a while, probably for the first 15-16 overs, but the death overs didn’t go according to the plan. We need to go back and make plans for the death overs. It’s all about using the right bowler at the right time towards the end.

We got one more game so we need to try and nail that aspect, so hoping to do that against India. It was quite a tough pitch though. 160 was a bit too much on that wicket. As I said it got away from us towards the end.”

James Neesham | Player of the Match: “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.”

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