The Indian batting line-up went ballistic against Namibia while Dasun Shanaka bettered his own record for the fastest T20 fifty for Sri Lanka
Defending champions India have continued their march towards the Super Eight stage of the Twenty20 World Cup with a 93-run plastering of Namibia in a group A contest at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Put in to bat, India racked up 9-209 after Ishan Kishan (61) and Hardik Pandya (52) struck rapid half-centuries.
They returned to bundle out Namibia for 116 in 18.2 overs to register their second successive victory and top the group because of a superior run-rate to Pakistan, who also have four points from two games.
The Asian arch-rivals will clash in a blockbuster in Colombo on Sunday.
“I think it was a pretty good game for everyone,” India captain Suryakumar Yadav said.
“It was not an easy wicket to bat on. The way Ishan and Sanju (Samson) started, it didn’t really look like it, but it was a difficult wicket.”
With Abhishek Sharma, currently the top-ranked T20 batter, still recovering from a stomach infection, an out-of-form Samson had another opportunity to impress after India were put into bat on Thursday.
Samson (22) looked keen to make it count too. The right-hander smacked three sixes but frittered away the start and fell in the second over.
But Kishan smashed JJ Smit for four sixes in a row to race to a 20-ball fifty.
India needed 4.3 overs to reach 50, and their next 50 came off 14 balls.
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus (4-20) ended Kishan’s 24-ball blitz and they managed to apply the brake after the departures of Varma (19) and Suryakumar (12).
Pandya, who hit four sixes, and Shivam Dube (23) provided the late flourish to take India past the 200-mark.
Steenkamp (29) and Jan Frylinck (22) began positively but Namibia kept losing wickets to drift out of contention.
For India, a fit-again Jasprit Bumrah bowled four tidy overs claiming the wicket of Ruben Trumpelmann with a trademark yorker.
Varun Chakravarthy (3-7) was the pick of the Indian bowlers, while fellow spinner Axar Patel and player-of-the-match Pandya claimed two wickets apiece.
“After the powerplay, we thought dew might make bowling tough and we had a chance. But that spell from Varun broke the back of our chase,” Erasmus said.
Shanaka’s 19-ball fifty lifts Sri Lanka over Oman
Captain Dasun Shanaka broke his own record for the fastest Twenty20 half-century for Sri Lanka as his side crushed Oman by 105 runs in Kandy.
Shanaka’s 19-ball 50 along with Kusal Mendis’ 61 and Pavan Rathnayake’s 60 against a weak bowling attack propelled Sri Lanka to a tournament-best 5-225 on Thursday.
Oman laboured to 9-120 in reply, the wickets shared by five bowlers. Off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana led with 2-11 off four overs.
Sri Lanka has two wins from two games while yet to meet Group B rivals Australia and Zimbabwe.
Oman’s 43-year-old Mohammad Nadeem became the oldest man to score a half-century in the history of the T20 World Cup with an unbeaten 53 from 56 balls.
Nadeem was one of the only two Oman batters to reach double figures with Wasim Ali scoring 27.
Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka and Kamil Mishra inside the power play but Rathnayake and Mendis featured in a brisk 94-run third-wicket stand off 52 balls.
Shanaka smacked five sixes to surpass his previous Sri Lanka record of a 20-ball half-century against India in 2023 before he holed out at long-off of the very next ball.
