Netherlands and Namibia became the 3rd and 4th team’s after Papua New Guinea and Ireland to qualify for 2020 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia. Netherlands defeated UAE in the play-off game to set-up semifinal showdown with Ireland, while Namibia defeated Oman in the other play-off game to set-up semifinal showdown with PNG on 01st Nov 2019. While this will be the 4th appearance for Netherlands in Men’s T20 World Cup, it will the maiden opportunity for Namibia in the T20 Showpiece event, like PNG.
The Final 2 spots for T20 World Cup will now be decided in the games between Scotland/UAE and Oman/Hong Kong on 30th Oct 2019. Netherlands registered an easy eight-wicket victory over hosts the UAE, after their pace quarter of Fred Klassen, Paul van Meekeren, Brandon Glover and Timm van der Gugten wrecked the UAE batting line-up from the word go and restricted them to only 80/9 in their 20 overs. The Dutch then chased down the target in the 16th over to spark big celebrations on the ground and the dressing room balcony.
In the 2nd game, Namibia registered a commanding 54 runs margin win over Oman, who were shell-shocked after a JJ Smit whirlwind knock of 59 runs off just 25 deliveries took the Namibians to over 160+, a target no team has been able to chase down in the qualifiers so far, whenever set by a team batting first. Oman started well in the chase with Khawar Ali doing the bulk of the scoring, but his dismissal and a combined spell between Gerhard Erasmus and Bernard Scholtz, that yielded 6 wickets in between them, literally wrote the writing on the wall for Oman.
Brief Scores
UAE 80/9 in 20 overs (Ahmed Raza 22, Waheed Ahmed 19, Muhammad Boota 16, Brandon Glover 4/12, Tim van der Gugten 2/10, Paul van Meekeren 2/13, Fred Klassen 1/18) lost to Netherlands 81/2 in 15.1 overs (Ben Cooper 41 n.o, Colin Ackermann 18, Zahoor Khan 1/12, Rohan Mustafa 1/19) by 8 wickets
Namibia 161/7 in 20 overs (JJ Smit 59, Craig Williams 45, Niko Davin 21, Bilal Khan 4/19, Aqib Ilyas 1/9, Fayyaz Butt 1/30) beat Oman 107 all out in 19.1 overs (Khawar Ali 41, Aqib Ilyas 18, Bernard Scholtz 3/14, Gerhard Erasmus 3/19, JJ Smit 2/12, Jan Frylinck 1/23) by 54 runs
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