Namibia’s joy after beating Ireland, a Test playing country, and what followed after the winning shot

 By K.R. Nayar

Watching the joy of a non-Test playing nation beating a Test nation is a delightful sight. Namibia created history at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium beating Ireland to qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 Super 12 stage in their very first appearance in the tournament. There were interesting scenes after the triumph.

David Wiese. Photo ICC

Soon after David Wiese hit the winning boundary and remained unbeaten with a timely 28 off 14 balls, their players and support staff went ecstatic. They rushed out hugging each other and everyone stood and waved at the few supporters who were cheering for them from the top of their voice from the pavilion. 

My captain should have been man of the match

Captain Gerhard Erasmus had remained unbeaten with a valuable 53 but was not named the man of the match. He did not seem concerned about it since the joy of his team making it to the Super 12 was more than anything else. But Wiese thought otherwise. After receiving the man of the match,  Wiese said: “I don't think I deserve to be sitting here. I think the captain Gerhard Erasmus deserves to be Man of the Match. This is really his moment and the rest of the team has put in so much work before now to be here.”

Small country with very few cricketers 

Namibia’s victory is also a victory for the many associate countries who are all working hard to qualify to play against the top Test nations.  Comments from captain Erasmus were filled with emotion and the crowd went on to clap when he said: “We a small country, and small number of people play cricket. We should be proud of ourselves. I count on my senior men to stand up when the pressure is on. And two of us did it tonight. Hopefully we can do it through the tournament. Hasn't sunk in yet, maybe on the way home."

Joy of a nation 

When the happy Namibia coach Pierre De Bruyn came for the post match press conference, I asked him about how he had planned this victory and what would be the impact of this victory in his country. He spoke about the impact first before revealing how he planned the win. “I can imagine what's going on in Namibia right now. It is a Friday afternoon there, so they'll be ecstatic. It will be a late night for the supporters back home.”

Pierre De Bruyn. Photo ICC

Talking about the planning, he said, “It was all calm planning for us. If you look at this surface here and the conditions, it actually suits us. That's what we get back home. We had a solid game plan. We made sure that we stuck to it. It was quite simple: Don't leave the stumps, play straight and take it deep.”

He also revealed where Ireland went wrong. “I think where Ireland got it wrong was after that devastating powerplay, the next four overs, 16 for 2, they fell asleep. We just knew that we needed to take it deep, rotate hard. We ran much better between the wickets. So yeah, the planning for me was something that we discussed and also the opposition analysis.”

The most touching aspect of his comments was when he mentioned that he has only 18 players to look upto. “We're not an organisation with the luxury of a lot of resources around us. I've got 18 players to pick from in my national squad. And I know what they've put in the last three years, and what happened out there today was, I suppose it sounds like a cliche, that the hard work has paid off, but it certainly did, and I'm really ecstatic for the boys.”

 Namibia bt Ireland at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah by eight wickets  
Ireland 125/8 in 20 overs (Paul Stirling 38, Kevin O’Brien 25; Jan Frylinck 3/21, David Wiese 2/22)   
Namibia 126/2 in 18.3 overs (Gerhard Erasmus 54 not out, David Wiese 28 not out; Curtis Campher 2/14) 
Player of the Match: David Wiese (Namibia)