Sure - but Namibia are also in the “first time at this level” bracket so if we were going to win any match, on paper this could have been it. Sadly, we don’t play on paper.
Paper is terrible for spin bowling
Brilliant comeback from Namibia. They held their nerve to make history.
Tricky for batting too: it’s important not to get stuck in the crease
I”m curious as to why the Namibia national cricket team is so predominantly white. Having a decent knowledge of South Africa’s history, it’s not surprising to me that its national teams in many sports are comprised of so many white players. But I never learned much about Namibia in World History classes and the country doesn’t seem to create a lot of headline news.
I should add that this question is based only on my first look at the current T20 World Cup team. Perhaps the composition is different for its other teams.
Basically, for the same reason the South African team is still predominantly white.
Not aware of their backgrounds but expect that most are or are sons of South African expats. David Weiss played for the Proteas. There are quite a few with passably Afrikaans surnames.
Afrikaans surnames are common in Namibia. As is the language itself - while not the most common mother tongue, it is the lingua franca.
Most of the team are Namibian born-and-bred, as far as I’m aware. Where they’re not, like Frylinck, they’re Namibian by ancestry - his dad being from there.
In other news:
Aus walking the game against SL at the moment. After limiting them to 154, Aus are 130/3 having just lost Warner - he’s broken the back of the chase though, and it’s hard to see SL limiting them to the less than a run a ball they need for the last overs.
I have a millennial South African “whenwe” coworker (I didn’t know there were such creatures)
Her take on this has been er, interesting.
What, erm, does this mean?
Expatriate White South Africans (or Zimbabweans or Namibians) who are nostalgic for the days “when we” were in charge.
Mr Dibble will be around shortly to tell me I’ve stuffed this up.
To me, Whenwes are exclusively Zimbabwean expatriates. The name comes from their rallying cry of “When we lived in Rhodesia…”. There was an earlier generation of East African whenwes, but in my lifetimes, it’s meant Zimbabwean.
I’ve never heard it used to refer to South Africans or Namibians, but I can see a 3rd generation forming overseas.
When I used to hang out with expat [mostly white] South Africans in the United States (specifically during the 1995 Rugby World Cup) they used the term to describe whiny ones among them who were pissed off about losing power in South Africa. And saying that things would go to hell there any day now. Maybe they were using it ironically. I wasn’t into the culture enough to understand the inside jokes.
Afghanistan made us sweat for a while today, but we had too much depth.
Bangladesh failed to deliver the killer blow with the ball, then didn’t really manage any dominant period with the bat.
I’m not really a T20 sorta guy … but I am watching a fair bit of the this tournament and enjoying it. Have been trying to fathom why.
Then the penny dropped.
If the par score for a T20 is 180-200 then there’s not much room for error. To set 200 the top 3 need to do almost all the lifting. Any loss of momentum is fatal to the chances. Dot balls are diamonds. Then if you are chasing 200 you need a mirror image performance. It’s like watching an F1 race. Despite all the skills required it’s formulaic.
But if par is 140 then there are many ways to do it. You can take 5 singles every over and a boundary off every second. If you need 150 then some extra hitting in the last 2 overs. Which nobody could regard as an exhilarating T20 batting performance.
But you can make 140 after losing 2-0 in the first over. You can make 140 after being 0-60 after the power play. You can drop catches and do the odd village thing and still win. Almost all of the Super 12 can do it against any other of the Super 12. Every game is a contest.
Tres grouse.
I wonder if the balls used in the T20 leagues are “juiced” to produce more runs. Watching the IPL, PSL and BBL over the years, the balls seem to spring off the bat more. In this tournament, they seem deader and behave more like in an ODI.
Doubt it.
The wickets are low and slow. Bowlers are getting more results bowling pace off and into the pitch. So batters have difficulty with timing. They are moving laterally across the crease preemptions deliveries. They are playing ramp shots and reverses to deliveries in the past which would have been flat batted. And the wickets are low and slow.
Well, I’d say you’re right based on the spring off of the bat of the 2 sixes that David Miller just hit in the final over. Perhaps batters are also naturally a bit more defensive when playing for their countries in a World Cup. In the leagues, they do seem to take more risks earlier on in the innings.