Underneath the hazy evening sky on the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday, Ishan Kishan (61, 24b, 6×4, 5×6) and Hardik Pandya (52, 28b, 4×4, 4×6) garnered the applause of a boisterous crowd with blistering half-centuries. Because the evening wore on, Varun Chakravarthy (2-0-7-3) bamboozled along with his assortment of methods. Theirs had been the defining contributions as India romped previous Namibia by 93 runs within the T20 World Cup Group-A contest.
Chasing 210, Gerhard Erasmus & Co. folded up for 116. Whereas the guests almost stored up with the asking charge within the first six overs, their restricted publicity to high quality spin was laid naked when Varun and Axar Patel hunted in tandem.
For the African facet, Erasmus was a shining speck with figures of 4-0-20-4. His spell of off-spin entailed a splash of improvisation — a number of balls had been bowled with a low, slingy arm whereas some others had been delivered from properly behind the crease. India’s batters should brace up for extra such unorthodoxy once they sq. up towards Pakistan’s Usman Tariq in Colombo on Sunday.
After Namibia elected to subject, India motored to 86 for one within the PowerPlay. Drafted in for the unwell Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson lofted Ruben Trumpelmann over the sight-screen within the first over, after which whipped Ben Shikongo for a brace of maximums. However a possibility to make extra of his time within the center was squandered when he flicked Shikongo to deep midwicket.
AS IT HAPPENED | IND vs NAM Highlights: IND bowls NAM out for 116, wins by 93 runs
Kishan duly pounced on the faintest of errors from Namibia’s novice assault. Having known as for a change of willow firstly of the fifth over, he tucked into left-arm medium-pacer J.J. Smit — 4 sixes on the trot noticed the ball sail over fine-leg, long-on and deep square-leg. He backed it up with a pull alongside the bottom for 4 to cap off a 28-run sixth over, and raised his half-century in a mere 20 balls.
Simply as Namibia might have begun fearing the worst, a quick interval of respite adopted. Between overs 7-12, India misplaced the wickets of Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma while accumulating simply 20 runs.
However regular service resumed as Hardik and Shivam Dube added 81 runs off 39 balls for the fifth wicket. Hardik was all brute drive, focusing on the arc from additional cowl to cow nook with trademark swagger.
By snaring 5 Indian scalps for 10 runs within the ultimate two overs, Namibia restricted the injury to an extent. Simply not sufficient to affect the decision.
Revealed on Feb 12, 2026