(Cricket news) Two relatively new cricketing nations making their country proud by reaching the Super 12s is an achievement in itself but now these two minnows face each other to get their first victory in the T20 group stage. For Scotland they will likely want to forget about what happened in the last match and would start fresh against Namibia. For Namibia it's more about encouraging people back home to play cricket and lift a nation that has suffered a lot during the pandemic.

Namibia are a pace heavy team as a lot of reliance is on David Wiese to lead the side in both bowling as well as batting. In the qualifying matches, Namibia had the second lowest run rate in the powerplay and the onus will be on Craig Williams and Zane Green to give a fast start. Namibia will want to target Scotland with spin as they tend to struggle against spinners, they lost nine wickets to Mujeeb and Rashid last match. Bernard Schltoz and Pikky Ya France will hold the key if they are to restrict the Scotland heavy hitters. 

Scotland will be hoping for a fresh start after a thrashing from Afghanistan last match. Scotland can capitalise on Namibia’s weakness as they have a fragile top order, taking few wickets in the power play will be the key as Josh Davey will be the bowler to watch out for. Scotland needs to be aware of David Wiese’s threat as he can single handedly take the game away from the Scots. Kyle Coetzer and Richie Berrington will be the key batters for Scotland, they need to neutralize the threat of Namibian bowlers and go big in the latter stages.

Head to head: Scotland 0 – 2 Namibia, they have never met at a World tournament.

Pitch and weather report: This will be the second match on the same pitch in Abu Dhabi as spinners might have a lot of influence on the game, considering the match is being played in the evening, dew may be a factor which is why any captain winning the toss will likely chase. The temperature is going to hover 30 degrees with no chance of rain.

Interesting facts:

• Scotland have lost 15 of their 30 wickets to spin in the tournament so far – the most by any team.
• Namibia have won eight of the nine T20Is this year.  .
• Safyaan Sharif is set to play his 50th game for Scotland. He is their top wicket-taker in T20Is with 57, 30 of which have come in the UAE in 22 innings 
• With seven sixes, Wiese is currently tied at the top with Evin Lewis for most sixes in the tournament

Also read: T20 World Cup preview: England take on Bangladesh in match no 8

Probable XI for Namibia:

1 Zane Green (wk), 2 Craig Williams, 3 Gerhard Erasmus (capt), 4 David Wiese, 5 JJ Smit, 6 Jan Frylinck, 7 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 8 Pikky Ya France/Stephen Baard, 9 Ruben Trumpelmann, 10 Michael van Lingen, 11 Bernard Scholtz

Probable XI for Scotland:

1 Kyle Coetzer (capt), 2 George Munsey, 3 Calum MacLeod, 4 Richie Berrington, 5 Matthew Cross (wk), 6 Michael Leask, 7 Chris Greaves, 8 Mark Watt, 9 Josh Davey, 10 Safyaan Sharif, 11 Brad Wheal