T20 WC 2021: IND vs NAM Review – India bow out of the World Cup with a victory  

Elimination without entering the semi-finals should hurt India but the team gave some joy to their fans with a consolation win against Namibia in Dubai on November 8. They got a better challenge than Scotland but were able to stay dominant winning their final Super 12 game by nine wickets.

Earlier in the evening, something quite unusual and rare happened. Virat Kohli, who was leading the Indian team in T20Is for the final time won his second consecutive toss and elected to bowl first. Namibia didn’t have an innings of substance from their batting unit. Stephan Baard with his 21 and David Wiese with his 26 made notable contributions. Jan Frylinck made 15 while Ruben Trumpelmann’s 6-ball 13 helped Namibia finish on 132 for 8.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah picked up two wickets while spin twin Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picked up three wickets each. The chase was never going to be too much for the strong Indian team and it didn’t take them too much time to get the target done.

Rohit Sharma smashed 56 runs from 37 balls on the onset while his opening partner KL Rahul guided the chase scoring 54 runs from 36 balls. Suryakumar Yadav was also unbeaten for his 19-ball 25 as India knocked off the chase in just 15.2 overs.

Top performers:

Ashwin-Jadeja: The spin duo have worked their magic in Test cricket several times in recent years. But at this tournament, they have rewinded our clocks but produced a couple of masterclasses with the white ball as well. Today, they had a combined figures of 8-0-36-6, which is quite sensational.

Indian openers: Both Rahul and Rohit have looked at their absolute best together since that Pakistan game. Today, the pair put on their third successive fifty-plus stand, adding 86 together in just 9.5 overs. India would hope that the pair continues their form heading into the next World Cup which is in a year’s time.

Records/Achievements:

• Rohit Sharma now has the most catches (44) for an Indian fielder in T20Is. He went past Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina (42 each).

• Rohit also reached 3000 runs in T20Is, second Indian after Kohli while third overall. The other player is Martin Guptill.
• Rohit and Virat are now the only two players in history to score more than 3000 runs in all three formats.

Tournament summary:

India exit the tournament with three wins and two losses. Namibia ended their campaign with three wins (two in the qualifying round) and five losses (four in the main round).