ENG vs NAM | All eyes on Scotland after gung-ho England hammer Namibia in rain-marred contest

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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England played their part to perfection in Antigua on Saturday to thrash Namibia by 41 runs in a 10-over contest after posting 122/5 on the board. The team's destiny now rests in Scotland's hands, given a win or no result against Australia would see them qualify for the Super 8 at England's expense.

Brief score: ENG 122/5 (10) [Brook 47*(20), Bairstow 31(18); Trumpelmann 2/31(2)] beat NAM 84/3 (10) [van Lingen 33(19), Wiese 27(12); Archer 1/15(2)] by 41 runs (DLS method)

After three hours of waiting for the rain to relent, an 11-over contest was announced with Namibia opting to bowl first. Veteran David Wiese got the side off to a brilliant start by just conceding one in his opening over and Ruben Trumpelmann capitalized with an inswinging jaffa to send skipper Jos Buttler packing for a duck. Wiese returned to cap off the three-over powerplay and produced a sensational knuckle ball first up to outfox Phil Salt, leaving the visitors reeling at 18/2 after three overs. However, Gerhard Erasmus erroneously decided to get spin into the game thereon, allowing Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow to put together an explosive half-century stand in just four overs. Moeen Ali continued in the same vein after the latter departed, his six-ball 16 split across a brief stop-in-play that cut down the game to 10 overs a side, before Liam Livingstone capped off the innings with two mammoth hits to propel England to 122/5.

The new-ball duo of Reece Topley and Jofra Archer executed well with the shiny new Kookaburra to restrict Michael van Lingen and Nikolaas Davin to 18 runs in the three-over powerplay. By the end of six overs, the required run rate had skyrocketed past 20, forcing Namibia to retire Davin out for the hard-hitting Wiese in a last-ditch attempt. The 39-year-old responded to the call of duty with a couple of huge maximums and was sent off by the opposition with heartwarming congratulations to commemorate a glorious career. Nonetheless, it made little difference to the result, as England cruised through their remaining overs to complete a breezy victory.

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