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Follow UsRuben Trumpelmann storm blows Oman away
You can’t afford to blink in World Cups; Oman paid the price for doing so. Two balls, two vicious inswingers from Ruben Trumpelmann and Oman found themselves 0/2 after 0.2 overs. It was a stunning exhibition of new-ball bowling from Trumpelmann, who bowled two unplayable jaffas. He picked one more to register figures of 3/17 in the powerplay.
Namibia give Oman no room to breathe
Namibia only used five bowlers, and four of them had an E.R under 5.0. The one that didn’t, David Wiese, picked three wickets. At no point was there any respite for the Oman batters. After the Trumpelmann storm, they were hounded by Namibia’s spinners.
Khalid Kail (34 off 39) fought valiantly but even he could take the side only to a total of 109.
Where are the boundaries, Namibia?
Chasing 110, Namibia didn’t collapse like Oman did, but they struggled big time to find fluency. The first 70 balls of the chase witnessed just five boundaries. After 12 overs, Namibia had lost just two wickets, but the required run rate had jumped from the initial 5.50 to 6.30.
Skipper Aqib Ilyas (3-1-11-1) led the choke with the ball on a dead slow surface.
Mehran Khan's stunning death overs spell
92/3, 18 needed off 18 with seven wickets in hand. Namibia, on paper, were runaway favorites.
But then Mehran Khan happened.
With the keeper up to the stumps, the right-armer bowled two of the last three overs and conceded just 8 runs in total to force a tie.
Namibia needed five to win off the last over with Wiese in the middle. Mehran, sticking to the simple plan of using the surface, went W 0 W 1 2 1LB to force a super over out of nowhere for Oman.
Wiese steals the show in Super Over
Wiese (9* off 8) failed to get the job done for Namibia in the second innings, but boy the veteran stepped up big time in the super over.
He took strike to Bilal Khan, and then went 4 6 2 1 in the four balls he faced. Skipper Erasmus struck two more boundaries and after six balls, Namibia were pretty much out of sight, at 21/0.
But Wiese wasn’t done. He took the ball in the super over, too, and went 2 0 W 1 1 6 to finish the job off for his side.
