T20 World Cup Qualifier | Netherlands and Namibia confirm their tickets to Australia

T20 World Cup Qualifier | Netherlands and Namibia confirm their tickets to Australia

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The Netherlands and Namibia emerged victorious in their respective play-off matches as they confirmed their presence in next year's T20 World Cup in Australia. Netherlands beat hosts UAE by eight wickets while Namibia comfortably cruised to a 54-run victory against a strong Oman side.

Netherlands vs UAE

The hosts batted first with a view to putting runs on the board in a high-pressure game. But they got off to the most horrific start one could have imagined, slumping to an astonishing score of 9/5 at one point. With the entire top order being torn apart, batsman Waheed Ahmed, keeper Mohammad Boota and skipper Ahmed Raza tried to restore some stability to the UAE innings by some decent starts. But the Dutch bowlers were just too hot to handle. Brandon Glover was the chief destroyer, with figures of 4 for 12 in his four overs. There was absolutely no momentum at any point in the hosts' innings as they were restricted to 80 for 9 in their 20 overs.

Chasing a meer 81 to book their place in the World Cup, the Dutch lost opener Max O'Dowd early when he was bowled by Rohan Mustafa, giving UAE some hope of a fightback. But Ben Cooper's unbeaten 41, along with decent contributions from Colin Ackermann and skipper Ryan ten Doeschate ensured that the Dutch cruised to an eight-wicket win, confirming their presence in the mega event next year in Australia.

Namibia vs Oman

Batting first, Namibia got off to a worst possible start, losing Stephan Baard off the first ball of the innings. But fellow opener Niko Davin and Craig Williams steadied the Namibian ship, with the latter scoring a well made 41-ball 45. But Namibia needed a late flourish to post a competitive total and JJ Smit exactly provided that with a blitzkrieg 59 off 25 balls consisting of 3 fours and 5 sixes, powering Namibia to a total of 161 in their 20 overs.

With a World Cup berth at stake, a good start from the openers was required from Oman's point of view to break the back of the chase. But that was not to be as they lost opener Jatinder Singh off the second ball of the chase. Khawar Ali and Aquib Ilyas tried to provide some impetus to Oman's chase with the former hitting a brisk 25-ball 41. But once he was stumped off the bowling of Bernard Scholtz, things started to go from bad to worse for Oman. It just started a flurry of wickets with Scholtz being the pick of the bowlers bagging 3 wickets for 14 runs in his four overs. Skipper Gerhard Erasmus also chipped in with three wickets in his four overs as Oman were bowled out for 107. This 54-run loss meant that Namibia for the first time in their cricketing history will be a part of the T20 World Cup.

Thus Papua New Guinea, Ireland, Netherlands and Namibia are the four Associate nations that have battled through the qualifier to book their places in Australia. With PNG and Namibia being debutants in the T20 World Cup, exciting cricket lies ahead and they would surely fancy causing an upset or two, come the mega event next year.

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