Picture Credit: Twitter
Namibia started their campaign at the main event of the T20 World Cup with a boom in the match against Scotland. The Scottish Saltires, who lost their first game in the tournament proper to Afghanistan by 130 runs, started their game against Namibia on Wednesday with a rush towards a similar embarrassing loss. And the architect of it all was the Eagles' left-arm pacer Ruben Trumpelmann who struck not once or twice but thrice in the very first over of the game.
After winning the toss, Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus opted to field first against Scotland at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. He then handed the ball to Ruben Trumpelmann who provided his side with the first breakthrough in the very first ball of the innings. On-strike batter George Munsey tried to play an overpitched ball from the backfoot and the repercussion saw him chopping the ball on his stumps and walking back to the pavilion for a golden duck.
The breakthrough invited number 3 batter Calum MacLeod on the ground and the newcomer could only come for his two-ball stay at the crease as Trumpelmann sent him too back to the pavilion. The pacer bowled a wide before bowling a dot delivery to MacLeod and then bowling a wide again. Just when it seemed that Trumpelmann had loosened the noose, he bowled a terrific out swinging short ball to the MacLeod who could only edge it to the keeper in haplessness. Then came Richie Berrington as the next batter and got out for a first-ball duck.
Alarmed by the preceding dismissal of MacLeod, Berrington got ready for an out swinging delivery but failed in front of the beauty of Trumpelmann. The left-arm pacer pitched the ball around the same region but this time it was packed with a vicious inswing in it and Berrington was caught plumb in front of the stumps and the umpire raised his finger.
After a comparatively long discussion with his fellow batter Matthew Cross, Berrington decided to go for a review but to his misfortune, the ball was found to be hitting the stumps on the umpire's call.