Mitchell Marsh-led Australian cricket team sealed their spot in the Super 8 stage after a thumping 9-wicket victory over Gerhard Erasmus' Namibia in match 24 of the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, on June 12 (Wednesday). Adam Zampa's four-fer helped the former champions restrict Namibia to 72 runs. Which is also the lowest score by a team against Australia in T20s. Then Aussie batters managed to chase the target in just 5.4 overs and became the second team to qualify for the next round.
Australia dominate Namibia
Australia completely outclassed Namibia in all departments showing the difference in their skills. First, in bowling, constant breakthroughs cornered Namibia and restricted them to a paltry score of just 72 runs. Captain Gerhard Erasmus was the highest scorer for the Namibian side with 36 runs and after him, the highest score was 10 runs by Michael vin Lingen. Apart from them, no other batter could even get to a double-digit score. Three batters got out after scoring just one run and two of them on duck.
After this, it was the turn of Aussie batters, who easily chased down the target in just 5.4 overs. First Warner smashed 20 runs off 8 balls. Then Tarvis Head's 34 runs off 17 balls and Micthell Marsh's 18 off 9 balls finished the game for the Aussies.
Namibia captain accepts gap in skillset
Namibia captain accepted that there was a clear skill gap between them and the Aussies. They tried to reduce that by fighting fire with fire but it was just not enough. He even accepted that the conditions were fair but they just could not play according to them.
“That you can't sit back against the best in the world. The skill gap is there, we tried to close that by fighting fire with fire but we did not do that in this tournament so far. A good side like Australia with their skillset will expose you if you are not mentally there, the conditions were fair and unfortunately, we did not play well enough according to the conditions,” said Gerhard Erasmus in the post-match presentation.
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