“It’s a massive event in our lives.” – Gerhard Erasmus, Namibia’s captain, on his team’s shock win over Sri Lanka.
Telford Vice / Geelong, Victoria
SRI Lanka had won, surely. If you had fallen gently from the quickly chilling evening sky over Geelong onto the concourse at Kardinia Park on Sunday, no other result would have seemed possible. Somebody had to lose the opening match of the 2022 edition of the men’s T20 World Cup, and that poor team must have been Namibia. Except that, of course, the reverse was true.
So why was the concourse heaving with the happiness of thousands of Lankan fans as they made their way, ever so slowly, out of the ground? Because another of their obsessions, not their boys in blue, were in the house making themselves heard loud and proud.
The Papare Band Melbourne, a bouncing brassy bunch of expatriates who have taken the party everywhere they’ve gone around cricket’s world to support Sri Lanka’s teams for around 20 years, were in full brassy bounce. The clamouring of the crowd to communicate their appreciation surfed on top of their idols’ sweet rhythms, lapping and leaving and lapping again like the waves of the Asian island itself — where similar bands come standard with any respectable cricket match, come rain, shine or a hiding. As the unofficial papare mantra goes: “Even if the ship sinks, the party will go on.”
And on this party duly went, regardless — or perhaps because — of the fact that Sri Lanka’s ship had been sunk by 55 runs in a game they had to win to keep their bid to reach the second round as uncomplicated as possible. The Lankans sailed full steam ahead while their aggressive, incisive fast bowling was reducing Namibia to 93/6 inside 15 overs.
That must have made them think they had arrived, because they promptly dropped anchor by reverting to a dribble of slower balls. In fact they were nowhere in particular, and Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit were able to share 69 off 33 deliveries in a marauding stand that was ended with the last ball of the innings.
Still, Sri Lanka’s beefy batting line-up should have been able to navigate their team to a target of 164. Instead they floundered to 92/9 in six balls more than the Namibians had scored one more run while losing three fewer wickets. But, unlike in their opponents’ innings, there was no lifeboat partnership. The Lankans were dismissed for 108 with an over of their innings unbowled, their lowest completed innings against associate opposition in the format. That earned the Namibians their first victory over a top-10 ranked team. David Wiese had suffered a first-ball duck, but his 2/16 was the tip of an iceberg that bristled with two wickets each for Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo — who took his with consecutive deliveries — and Jan Frylinck.
With that, the result of last year’s meeting between the teams in this tournament in Abu Dhabi was capsized. Then, Namibia were bowled out for 96 and Sri Lanka headed for the showers with seven wickets standing and 6.3 overs still in the bank.
“The tables have been turned,” a beaming Namibia captain, Gerhard Erasmus, told a press conference. “It’s not just about what we did tonight. We put in solid preparation for 12 months as opposed to just the 20 overs we had to bat. It was all down to hard work and preparation.
“There was hype and childish belief last year, and this year it was more that we had played at that level and knowing we can relate to it physically and mentally. We’ve seen it, we’ve tasted it, and because we’ve closed that gap by becoming one step closer to [more established teams] and getting the physical feel for what it’s like, that’s really what gave us the belief this time that this is a game of cricket, and if we execute better than our opponents on the day, we stand a good chance of winning.”
Was he surprised the Lankans had eased up after almost powering through his batting order? “At 93/6 there was some pressure on us. We had to resurrect the innings or finish stronger, and 164 was a lot of runs to get on this wicket, in batting conditions that were quite tough.”
Erasmus said he learnt in the media on Sunday morning that his team had been given “about an 11% chance”, and that “reading that gives you an underdog feeling, and that backed by a bit of real belief — not the childish kind — I think that’s what happened today. We went onto the field on an equal footing to the Sri Lankan side.”
Now for the hard part; easing down from the crest of euphoria gently enough to be ready to do it all again when Namibia return to the scene of their triumph on Tuesday to meet the Netherlands.
“It’s going to take a massive mental reset because you can get carried away with celebrations and historic events like this,” Erasmus said. “Everyone, rightly so, is very glad to have beaten Sri Lanka for the first time, and on the world stage in the opening game. It’s a massive event in our lives, and as such it should be celebrated. But because the recovery between games is so quick we have to put the celebrations on hold. We really want to get our eye in on qualifying for the Super 12s, which is really the main goal.”
Indeed, because Sunday’s success could mean nothing if Namibia lose their other two first-round games. And the Dutch will be buoyant after hanging tough in the second half of Sunday’s doubleheader to beat the United Arab Emirates by three wickets with a ball to spare in a competitive but scrappy encounter that never rose to the heights of what went before. By comparison, it was a cricket match and nothing more.
Bas van de Leede was slippery enough to take 3/19 in three overs in the UAE’s total of 111/8, of which Muhammad Waseem made 41. The Netherlands approached their reply like a docile dog might an injured bird. They seemed to lack plan and purpose, and needed brave running between the wickets by Scott Edwards and Tim Pringle in their seventh-wicket stand of 30 off 27 to tilt the match firmly in their direction.
By the time that was done, the Papare Band Melbourne were long gone, taking with them almost all of the crowd of 16,407 — the vast majority Sri Lanka fans — who had dominated the space earlier. The smattering of orange-shirted spectators who remained were noisily passionate in their support and rewarded for the commitment they showed in the cold. Somehow they didn’t sound the same.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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