Sri Lanka under fire over 'horrible' scenes in T20 World Cup boilover
The T20 World Cup has already seen an enormous upset after Namibia shocked Sri Lanka in the opening game in Geelong to spark emotional scenes.
Sri Lanka was met with fanatic support at Kardinia Park, but Namibia quickly silenced the crowd with a 55-run victory as the nation looks to recreate their success at last year's World Cup.
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And Namibia will now fancy their chances of repeating the feat of reaching the Super 12 Stage again with clashes against the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates next.
At Kardinia Park Namibia's bowling was on point while Sri Lanka's batting saw them come undone.
Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit batted Namibia into the match with a mighty seventh-wicket stand and they defended their 7-163 with great bowling and fielding to dismiss Sri Lanka for 108 from 19 overs.
Initially, Frylinck reflected the incredulity of just about everyone in cricket when he accepted his man of the match award.
"I'm a little bit speechless ... what we just achieved is above what we thought we could do," said Frylinck, who also took two wickets.
And the cricket world joined in on the remarkable scenes.
Sri Lankan fans were ruthless in their criticism of their team, while plaudits flowed for the mighty Namibia.
Greatest day in the history of Namibian cricket, they have beaten Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup 2022.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 16, 2022
Namibia players got Emotional after won the match against Sri Lanka in T20 World Cup. Greatest day for Namibia cricket history. pic.twitter.com/ehYc9TZv7y
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) October 16, 2022
"The World Cup showed that Associates have not kept up in T20 - because they're playing too few games"
Headline of a popular article. Interestingly Namibia🇳🇦 beat Sri Lanka🇱🇰 in the very first T20 WC match after this article.— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) October 16, 2022
Namibia outclasses Sri Lanka in opening match of ICC T20 World Cup.
— Faizan Lakhani (@faizanlakhani) October 16, 2022
Shocker !! Namibia wins against Sri Lanka. Is this T20 World Cup going to be something special ?
— Salman Ahmad (@8bitMamba_) October 16, 2022
Let's make a strong comeback boys. It was a horrible day at the office. Dasun Shanaka's men will regroup and come up with a better performance for sure. We will continue to believe you, coaches, administration and the process. Comeon #SriLanka #lka #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/yNqyWhzpzq
— Amila Kalugalage (@akalugalage) October 16, 2022
Had SL qualified for super 12 before the world cup started, we would have not witnessed the dominant performance of Namibia over Srilanka. Beating any team(even associate team) by 55 runs is simply outstanding in T20 match#SLvsNAM #SLvsNamibia #T20WorldCup2022
— Nishant Agrawal (@tweetby_nishant) October 16, 2022
Namibia rally to defeat Sri Lanka at T20 World Cup
Sri Lanka won the toss and when off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana had David Wiese caught behind for a golden duck, Namibia were in major strife at 6-93 from 14.2 overs.
But Frylinck and Smit turned the match with a big-hitting stand of 70 from 34 balls as the Sri Lankan attack lost its way.
Frylinck was run out on the last delivery of the innings and top-scored with 44 from 28 balls, while Smit hit two sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 31 from 16 deliveries.
Namibia's rally rolled into the start of the Sri Lankan innings, with 22-year-old fast bowler Ben Shikongo on a hat-trick in the fourth over.
He dismissed opener Pathum Nissanka and then Danushka Gunathilaka in his double-wicket maiden over to have Sri Lanka reeling at 3-21, a hole from which they could never recover.
Shikongo, Wiese and Bernard Scholtz also took two wickets apiece.
Sri Lanka's poor day started badly when promising young left-arm paceman Dilshan Madushanka was ruled out of the tournament with a torn quaad .
The 22-year-old has a torn quad muscle and Binura Fernando, who did not play on Sunday, has taken his place in their Cup squad.
Captain Dasun Shanaka called for calm, with Sri Lanka now needing wins over the UAE and the Netherlands in their group to progress.
"We have a good team, but it's about the process.
"There's nothing to worry about - it's the first game ... we are a better team than this, especially when it comes to the bowling."
with AAP
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