The second match in the ICC T20 World Cup on Sunday night sees Group B of the competition getting underway at the Kensington Oval in Barbados as Namibia start their third successive campaign against familiar foes in Oman.
These two sides know that the defending champions England and 50 over World Cup holders Australia are in their section so they will be well aware that this is a came they can’t afford to lose if they want to progress in the competition.
Namibia
I think it is fair to say that Namibia have been the surprise package of the last two T20 World Cups. They made it out of their group in the 2021 version and then shocked Sri Lanka in the last World Cup and having stormed through the Africa qualifier, winning all of their matches, they will be wanting to show what they can do at a third successive tournament. There is a strong feeling that they have much more depth to their side this year too which makes them a potentially dangerous proposition.
I think it is fair to say that the batting resources of the Namibians have been stretched in previous campaigns and they have relied on a couple of players down the order to get them out of a pickle on occasions. They now have a stronger top order that can set better platforms for the bigger hitters down the order to propel which makes them dangerous because they have never lacked for bowling options that generally get the job done whatever the conditions are that they face.
Oman
Oman will be competing in their third T20 World Cup and having failed to get out of the opening group stage at their first two attempts they will be looking to make history for their country by giving their best showing this time around. There is a school of thought that this is the best Oman side to grace this tournament with a much deeper pool of potential match winners and with nothing to lose that could make them dangerous.
Oman are ranked higher in the T20 world rankings than both Canada and PNG who have already put up creditable performances in the competition and they ran Namibia close in a five-match T20 series earlier in the year where they led 2-1 before going down 3-2 so they will believe this is a game they can win, especially if the pitch in Barbados offers something for the spinners. If it does then it brings both their batters and bowlers into play.
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Team News
Namibia are expected to name a number of all-round options in their side for this opening match with Gerhard Erasmus, JJ Smit, David Wiese and Jan Frylinck all likely to be included. Ben Shikongo will take the new ball.
Oman will be led by new captain Aqib Ilyas for this match and he has promised to take a more measured approach in order to help his side. If Oman are to win this then you sense that Bilal Khan will need to bowl four excellent overs.
Betting
I think this will be closer than the odds suggest because these are probably conditions which will suit Oman a little more than they suit Namibia, however Namibia have so many bowling options that if someone goes the distance they can go down a different route and that might just be the overall difference in this one. I don’t really want to tie my money up on Namibia though so I will head to the player performance markets for a bet on this one.
That comes in the form of the Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus who had a very good series against Oman earlier in the year where he made two 50s in scoring 145 runs in the five matches and then taking eight wickets in the four innings that he bowled in. Conditions here aren’t going to be a great deal different to the ones that series was played in and he is likely to bat at four and bowl a fair bit. With all that in mind, a 40.5 performance line doesn’t look nearly high enough to me.
Tips
Back G.Erasmus’ Performance – Over 40.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
