New Zealand chased down the 125-run target set by the Afghans on Sunday to confirm their place in the last four of the mega event and cause yet another ICC event heartbreak for the Virat Kohli and company, who have now not won an ICC trophy in eight years. It will also be the final game of the Super 12 stage of the tournament, with the two semi-finals and the final taking place thereafter. Preview: India will take on Namibia in what will be their final outing of the 2021 T20 World Cup, after New Zealand's eight-wicket victory over Afghanistan on Sunday ended the Men in Blue's hopes of making it to the last four. It's also curtains down on Virat Kohli's reign as T20I captain, as well as the Kohli-Shastri era with Ravi Shastri making way for Rahul Dravid for the head coach's role at the end of this match. India vs Namibia, Live Cricket Score, T20 World Cup 2021 Latest Updates: India win by 9 wickets with 28 balls to spare! Fittingly, it's KL Rahul who collects the winning run for Team India as the Men in Blue sign off from what was otherwise a disappointing World Cup campaign with a comprehensive victory over the Namibians. Meanwhile, the Indians are wearing black armbands as a mark of respect for the late coach Tarak Sinha, who passed away on Saturday. Leg bye added to the score in the penultimate delivery, with van Lingen keeping the striker with a single off the last delivery. Wide next delivery, with van Lingen also getting off the mark with a single off the third delivery. Runs right away for the Namibians as Stephen Baard steers the ball behind square on the off side for a single off the first delivery. The business of captaincy, selecting teams, switching bowlers, picking out fields, managing people and handling the press is enough of a burden without the back-breaking load of carrying such a deadweight batting unit.After 1 over,Namibia 5/0 ( Stephan Baard 1, Michael Van Lingen 2) He has scored six centuries, his 24 teammates have managed one. They’ve put on 10 hundred-run partnerships, and Root has been involved in eight of those.
They have put on 32 fifty-run partnerships this year, Root has been involved in 20 of them. The closest comparison is 1963, when Ken Barrington made 1,015 and Ted Dexter 583.Īll of which is another way of saying that the man who may be England’s greatest-ever batsman is playing in what is probably England’s weakest-ever batting line-up. In the long history of English cricket, it’s never happened that their leading batsman has scored more than 1,000 runs while the next best of his teammates has scored fewer than 500. The last time England’s second-leading run scorer made so few was back in 1999, when England lost to New Zealand at home and slipped to the bottom of the world rankings. This year the next-best batsman is Rory Burns, who has scored 492 runs. In fact, while everyone’s been watching Root close in on one record, his teammates have been threatening another. In 2002, every member of England’s top six scored at least 500 runs in 2015, so did Alastair Cook, Ben Stokes, Ian Bell and Moeen Ali in 2016, Cook, Moeen and Stokes did it again, and so did Alex Hales. It’s interesting, flicking through them, to see how well their teammates played around them at the time. There was Michael Vaughan, of course, in 2002, Jonny Bairstow in 2016 and Root himself, in 20. On screen they showed the top five in the list. It is a record for the most runs scored by an Englishman in a single year of Test cricket. Just after tea at the Gabba, Root hit his 1,482nd run of 2021. He peeled off a flawless 180 not out against India at Lord’s in August and they were still beaten by 151 runs. England won’t win anything if Root doesn’t score runs, but the truth is, they don’t necessarily win much when he does, either. Root’s 86 was a vital sign that his duck in the first innings was an aberration, while Malan’s 80 was, in a way, even more important.
The game changed as that 159-run partnership between Joe Root and Dawid Malan stretched on through the afternoon, the miseries for England of the first two innings receded, replaced by the promise of a better contest ahead.