T20 World Cup 2022: Sri Lanka register unwanted record as they go down to Namibia | READ
T20 World Cup 2022: The game of cricket is certainly a great leveler and there are no second thoughts about that. The Sri Lankan team which was on cloud 9 after their successful Asia Cup campaign has gone down to Namibia in the first qualifier of the ongoing T20I World Cup that is being played in Australia. A total of 16 teams are participating in the World Cup and the contest is sure to intensify as the tournament starts featuring the big eight from the Super 12 stage.
The Dasun Shanaka-led Sri Lankan team were being touted as the favourites as far as this particular game is considered, but the shortest format of the game is very unpredictable and can swing either way. Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first but things kept on getting haywire for them. Apart from Michael van Lingen and Divan la Cock, the Lanka bowlers couldn't create any kind of problems for any Namibian batsmen and they kept on milking runs for fun. Namibia knew that they required something concrete to challenge Sri Lanka and win the match and they exactly did what the doctor had ordered.
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Sri Lanka tried to keep Namibia's scoring in check but come to the final four overs, they lost their grip on the match as Namibia scored freely at will. Dasun Shanaka's bowlers conceded 57 runs in the final four overs and this happens to be the second-highest number of runs conceded in a men's T20 World Cup game. Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit wentb bersek in the end. Frylinck scored 44 off 28 deliveries and Smit scored 31 off 16 deliveries as they propelled Namibia's score to 163/7 at the end of 20 overs.
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Much to Sri Lanka's dismay, they fell short by 55 runs and now they'll have plenty of soul-searching to do before they head into their next qualifier match. Sri Lanka will now take on the United Arab Emirates on October 18, 2022.
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