Pakistan booked their semi-final berth in the ICC T20 World Cup as they defeated Namibia by 45 runs in a game played in Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
Namibia had a respectable show with the bat, scoring 144/5 in reply of Pakistan’s 189 runs.
Namibia lost their first wicket cheaply on 8 runs in shape of Michael van Lingen. However, Stephen Baard and Craig Williams had a decent partnership of 47 runs before the former got run out after scoring 29 runs.
Williams had a good time in the middle as he played an impressive knock of 40 runs on 37 balls before Shadab Khan removed him.
Meanwhile, David Wiese put up a good fight, making 43 runs off 31 balls with the help of 3 4’s and two 6’s.
For Pakistan, fast bowler Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan picked one wicket each, while Shaheen Shah Afridi remained wicketless in the contest.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat as they wanted to try their hands on bowling with the wet ball.
The wicket looked a bit tricky as both the openers, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan struggled to time their strokes.
Pakistan were 59 for none in the first 10 overs.
The Men-in-Green then had a couple of good overs, taking Pakistan to 89 in 12 overs.
It was the perfect platform for the batsmen to launch an all-out attack.
The Babar-Rizwan combo had yet another 100-run stand before the skipper lost his wicket after making 70 runs off 49 deliveries.
Fakhar Zaman came out to bat after Babar’s departure but he could not contribute significantly and was brilliantly caught by the Scottish wicketkeeper off Jan Frylinck after scoring 5.
Mohammad Hafeez, who was struggling with the bat, had a good outing in the middle who scored 32 runs off 16 balls.
Meanwhile, Rizwan remained unbeaten on 79 off 50 deliveries.
Pakistan had a brilliant end to the inning where they put 51 runs on the board in the last three overs, setting up a big total of 189 runs.
Wiese and Frylinck remained the pick of the bowler for Namibia as they picked one wicket apiece, conceding 30 and 31 runs, respectively.