Muhammad Waseem put on an all-round show as the UAE wrote their first-ever T20 World Cup win, beating Namibia by seven runs in the closing Group A match in Geelong on Thursday.
Thanks to the UAE’s win, the Netherlands qualified for the Group A Super 12 along with Sri Lanka, while Namibia, which was in the draw for the match, was also eliminated.
The UAE had already been eliminated after Sri Lanka had beaten the Netherlands by 16 runs earlier in the day.
Chasing 149 for a win on a two-speed field, Namibia lost half of their side within 10 overs and it was then left to the seasoned David Wiese to steer their ship with 55 from 36 balls. He hit three fours and as many sixes.
But the effort proved insufficient as Waseem (1/16 from two overs) came out on top with a perfect last over and sent Wiese away to take a memorable win.
Wiese had an excellent 70-run eighth wicket partnership with Ruben Turmpelmann who played the perfect foil with occasional limits and clever rotation of the shot in his 25 not out of 24 balls.
Namibia needed 20 runs from the last two overs, but Zahoor Khan came in with a perfect penultimate over and allowed only six runs, cleverly mixing up his deliveries and bowling with cross seam.
With pressure on him, Wiese went over for a big hit in the final and hollowed out on the long frontier.
Previously, Waseem hit a composite 50 (41b; 1×4, 3×6) while skipper CP Rizwan went undefeated on 43 of 29 deliveries to bring the UAE to a battling 148 for three after choosing to bat.
They got off to a slow start with Vritya Aravind struggling to get up and getting fired for 21 of 32 deliveries.
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But when Rizwan joined Waseem at the crease, the runs started flowing.
After the departure of Waseem, Basil Hameed (25 not out; 14 balls) was the late push, scoring 33 runs in the last two overs, along with Rizwan who was not out of the game.
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