‘Nobody was ready for this’ – Twitter can’t keep calm as Namibia floors Sri Lanka to kick off the 20-20 World Cup 2022

Sri Lanka and Namibia locked horns in the inaugural game of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 in Geelong. This was the Group A game of the first round. The Lankan Lions were favorites to win the game given their confidence of winning the Men’s Asia Cup 2022 last month. Talking about this game, the Lions won the toss and elected to bowl first.

The 2014 winners had a good start as they picked three wickets in the powerplay. Dushmantha Chameera, Pramod Madushan, and Chamika Karunaratne took one wicket each. Nicol Loftie-Eaton (20) looked good but could score a big one for his team. At 35/3, Stephen Baard and captain Gerhard Erasmus stitched a partnership of 41 runs, Before they could take the team to a competitive total, they lost their wickets in the 12th and 14th overs.

David Wiese bagged a golden duck and it looked like the favorites will win the game easily. However, the likes of Jan Frylink and JJ Smit weren’t ready to go down just yet. They stitched a partnership of 70 runs to take the team to a fighting total of 163/7. For the Dasun Shananka-led side, Maheesh Theekshana, Chamika Karunaratne, and Wanindu Hasaranga took one wicket each. On the other hand, Pramod Madushanka took two wickets.

Namibia pulls off an upset to kick off the tournament

In reply, the Lankan Lions had no answer to Namibia’s disciplined bowling. Wiese took an important wicket of Kusal Media in the second over to begin the annihilation. Couple of overs later, Ben Shikongo took back-to-back wickets of Pathum Nissanka and Danishka Gunathilaka to peg back the opposition for 21/3.

For a brief period, skipper Dasun Shanaka ad Bhanuka Rajapaksalooked like taking the game deep. However, when they lost their wickets in the space of two overs, the writing was pretty much on the wall. The fans knew that Namibia is up for scripting history in the tournament. They restricted the former champions on 108 all out, winning the game by 55 runs.

This is how Twitter reacted

What an upset we have on our hands here ….. Namibia are on fire, fielding like they own the stadium.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 16, 2022

The last few overs have been kamikaze. Sri Lanka's defeat in this match was all-but guaranteed a few overs ago but the batting that has followed only serves to risk their chance of an enormous NRR hit. #T20WorldCup

— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) October 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/iamkarki/status/1581542692479471616?s=20&t=tx1NVZWffS3Ljm0Q07_0qw

Namibia's performances in T20 World Cups starting to take on the feel of Ireland at ODI World Cups a few years ago. Everyone well-drilled, great team spirit. No longer a shock that they're beating teams with more resources #T20WorldCup2022

— James Coyne (@coynejames) October 16, 2022

Sri Lanka, the current #AsiaCup2022 T20I champions and the only side to reach a WT20 final on three occasions (won 1, lost 2) has been defeated by Namibia, perhaps the second-best T20I side in Africa, by a massive margin of 55 runs!#T20WorldCup2022 #T20WC2022 #SLvNam #NamvSL

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) October 16, 2022

Namibia have beaten Sri Lanka by 55 runs in the first World T20 qualifier.
Nobody was ready for this result after Sri Lanka won Asia Cup recently #SLvNAM

— Nabeel Hashmi (@iNabeelHashmi) October 16, 2022

Namibia beat Sri Lanka by 55 runs. That eons old David vs Goliath story enacted at Geelong. What a start to WC. #T20WorldCup2022 #SLvNAM #CricketTwitter

— Unnikrishnan (@unni1974) October 16, 2022

Sri Lanka played poorly, obviously, but the story of the nqtch is how magnificently Namibia performed with bat, ball and in the field. Warning gong sounded for all teams in the WC that this is going to be a tough competition

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 16, 2022

This is how Zimbabwe's Brad Evans talked about how they felt losing a five-match series at home this past May to Namibia, calling it "rock bottom". Well, Namibia just torched Sri Lanka too. Do people forget that Namibia made the Super 12 stage last year? https://t.co/b8YHth3pBo pic.twitter.com/A6uhavlJc5

— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) October 16, 2022

https://twitter.com/Anubhavshahi48/status/1581552221715853312?s=20&t=1pUv3WOH1RyJ–kJ57wF_w