Namibia kick off World Cup in style with famous upset
Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo show spirit and skill to hand Sri Lanka a heavy defeat
If you're looking for a turning point in the match, this is it. Namibia were 93 for 6 with 34 balls remaining in the innings. They seemed headed for a total of less than 140, given how quickly wickets were falling, and that their most reputed batters were already out.
Sri Lanka's openers had been crucial in their Asia Cup campaign, but here Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka could not get out of single figures. Mendis was out first, top-edging a Wiese delivery that he had tried to pull in the second over. Nissanka was the first victim of Shikongo's double-strike, failing to clear mid-on with a lofted drive. Danushka Gunathilaka nicked the next ball to the wicketkeeper, and Sri Lanka were 21 for 3. Their powerplay brought only 38.
The middle order's collapse was perhaps even more dramatic. Following Shanaka and Rajapaksa's brief attempt at recovery, the climbing required rate had Sri Lanka's batters looking for boundaries. They failed abysmally, as Namibia's bowlers used the slowness of the surface to excellent effect. Between the 10th and 17th overs (42 balls), Sri Lanka lost five wickets, and made 25 runs, hitting zero boundaries. In fact, in the whole batting card, only four batters managed to hit a boundary.
The first 15 overs of this game had gone as expected, roughly. Sri Lanka fielded well through the first three quarters of their bowling innings - Dhananjaya de Silva taking an especially good running catch at deep square leg at the end of the 14th over. Up to this point, Sri Lanka's spinners had been incredibly effective, and their quicks were hard to score off - every member of the attack having taken at least one wicket, with Madushan having claimed two.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. @afidelf