World Cup T20
India need 133 to win their last encounter against Namibia in T20 WC
Dubai/UNI: Riding high on Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja's bowling performance, India restricted Namibia at 132 for 8 and needed 133 runs to register an inconsequential victory in the ongoing T20 World Cup here on Monday.
Jadeja and Ashwin ended with figures of 3 for 16 and 3 for 20, respectively. Also Jasprit Bumrah picked two wickets after conceding 19 runs in 4 overs.
Namibia started their innings well, but struggled to negotiate quality spin bowling after losing openr Michael van Lingen (14).
Stephen Baard (21) and Lingen unleashed some shots early on to take the total to 33 for no loss, but India's premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah broke the stand and then the spinners chipped in.
Jadeja and Ashwin spun a web around Namibian batsmen as the tweakers shared six wickets between them.
David Wiese (26), Jan Frylinck (15 n.o) and Ruben Trumpelmann (13 n.o), for Namibia, provided the late burst that brought some respectability to the total.
Earlier, skipper Virat Kohli won his second consecutive toss, but on Monday it hardly mattered much as India are already out of the tournament.
Opting to chase, Kohli made one change and brought in Rahul Chahar in place of Varun Chakravarthy.
As a mark of respect, India took the field wearing black armbands to honour Tarak Singh, a much-loved coach in Delhi, who had groomed Rishabh Pant, Ashish Nehra, Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan.
In the fifth over, India got their first wicket off Jasprit Bumrah's bouncer to Michael van Lingen caught at midoff. The Indian pacer surprised the Namibian opener with a bouncer after bowling a flurry of yorkers.
Jadeja took the second wicket of Craig Williams (0) stumped to leave Namibia at 34 for 2. Thereafter, Jadeja and Ashwin kept striking in tandem. The Chennai lad tossed up a slow one to Jan Nicol Loftie Eaton (5), who edged the ball to first slip to Rohit Sharma.
Ashwin purchased yet another wicket by sending back Namibian skipper Gerhard Erasmus (12) caught behind by Rishabh Pant.
Rahul Chahar who came into the side in place of mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and bowled in the only T20 WC match, ended up with figures of zero for 30 in his stipulated 4 overs.
Jadeja went past Hardik Pandya and became India's fifth-highest wicket-taker in the format after he picked up his 46th T20I wicket, which included the three he took today.
At the end of 16 overs, Namibia were 95 for 7 after Ashwin disturbed Zane Green's top of the middle stump as he tried to play inside the line that held the line against the angle.
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