(Cricket news) Pakistan are on the verge of qualifying for the semis with a victory over newcomers Namibia. On the other hand Namibia will look to cause a major upset by winning against a formidable Pakistan side.
Pakistan heading into the match have all the bases covered in the team, the only concern being the form of Hasan Ali who has found it tough to keep his cool as he has conceded 108 runs in three matches. The other two fast bowlers Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf have been in exceptional form and will look to continue picking wickets especially against the two minnow nations Namibia and Scotland. The spinners will again play a massive role in the match, like we saw against Afghanistan Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan both had economical spells which contained the batsman to a low score. The batters too will look to grab this opportunity and make a lot of runs against a very weak bowling lineup.
Namibia will be the underdogs in this match and they can actually take advantage of it by playing fearless cricket. David Wiese and Gerhald Erasmus have been the two standout batters for Namibia. A lot will depend on how Shadab Khan is able to control them in the middle overs.If Namibia manage to dismiss the openers early, they can sense a chance with the yet-to-fire middle order of Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik. Namibia can put pressure on Pakistan by winning the toss and putting them to bat first as they haven’t defended a total in this tournament.
Head to head: This is only the second instance of Pakistan playing Namibia in an international match. The previous meeting came in the 2003 world cup which Pakistan won by 171 runs
Pitch and weather report: it will be the second match being played on the same pitch as dew will play a massive part in this game, toss could again be the game changer in this game. A score of 150 should be a par score on this venue, the temperature is going to hover 30 degrees, with no chance of rain.
Interesting facts:
- Two of Namibia's three lowest totals in T20Is have come in this tournament: 96 all-out vs Sri Lanka and 98/9 vs Afghanistan.
- Namibia have won 21 of their 27 T20Is, with a win percentage of 77.77. This is the highest of any nation to have played an ICC World Cup, and second overall, behind Romania's 88.23%
- Pakistan have won their last 14 T20I matches in the United Arab Emirates
- If Babar Azam gets a half-century in this game, he’ll become the captain with most 50-plus scores in T20Is (14). He currently shares the feat with Virat Kohli.
- Haris Rauf is two scalps away from completing 50 wickets in international cricket.
Also read: Jos Buttler reaches multiple landmarks for England in T20 format
Probable XI for Pakistan:
1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Mohammad Hafeez/Haider Ali, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Asif Ali, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Imad Wasim, 9 Hasan Ali/Mohammad Nawaz, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi
Probable XI for Namibia:
1 Craig Williams, 2 Michael van Lingen, 3 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 4 Gerhard Erasmus (capt), 5 Zane Green (wk), 6 David Wiese, 7 JJ Smit, 8 Jan Frylinck, 9 Pikky Ya France, 10 Ruben Trumpelmann, 11 Bernard Scholtz
