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The 11th match of T20 World Cup 2021 that is taking place between Namibia and Ireland is turning out to be a cracker of a game as both the sides are giving their all on the field to win the contest and advance to the main event. Notably, both the sides have two points each after completing two games each in Round 1. Hence, the winner of the game between the sides on Friday will simply advance to the next stage, that is the T20 World Cup proper.
The game started with Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie wining the toss and opting to bat first at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The openers of Ireland came out all guns blazing and added 62 runs in just 7.1 overs. The very next delivery saw Paul Stirling losing his wicket to Bernard Scholtz and opening the floodgates in the process as wickets fell in tandem post that for Ireland and they were eventually restricted to a below-par total.
Ireland had scored only 122 runs by 19.5 overs and they badly needed to score more and more runs possible on the final delivery to get to a decent total. But barely did anyone know that their will to score runs would finally give rise to a comedy of errors on the final ball.
What happened on the final ball?
On-strike batter Simi Singh failed to execute a scoop shot and the ball just came back to a running Wiese in his follow-up. The bowler picked the ball and threw it on the stumps before the ball could miss its target and the batters could go for an extra run. In a bid to run them out, Namibia's wicketkeeper Zane Green collected the ball after the fielder recovered and threw it to him at the batting end. Green then threw the ball at the non-striker end where the fielders failed to collect the ball cleanly and the batters survived eventually, giving rise to a comedy of errors.
Here is the video:
Stirling 38 off 24 was the highest scorer for Ireland as they posted 125/8 in the stipulated 20 overs. Notably, Kevin O Brien was the only other batter who reached double digit (25 off 24). Meanwhile, Jan Frylinck (3/21) was the standout performer with the ball.