Namibia were expectedly nervous as they lined up for their first Super 12 match against Scotland in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. But at the end of the match, the players were over the moon as the team registered a morale-boosting victory against Scotland.

Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus said his players were delighted for getting another World Cup win after having come through the first round with two wins.

“Delighted to get another World Cup win, we were emotional coming from the first group and we managed to put in another good performance. We’ll be taking some good momentum and energy into the other games,” Erasmus said after the match.

Rubel Trumpelmann’s triple strikes in the opening over followed by an unbeaten 32 from JJ Smit led the way for Namibia to defeat Scotland by four wickets in a Group 2 match.

Trumpelmann claimed 3/17 as Namibia restricted Scotland for 108 and then Smit played his hand as they chased down the target with four wickets to spare.

Asked what he told his players during the break between the two innings as they got ready for the chase, Erasmus said they were not big talkers during the break.

“We speak more beforehand than try and speak during the game (innings break), with that score we had a clear gameplan and luckily with two partnerships we got over the line,” said Erasmus.

The skipper was delighted by the performance of Trumpelmann. “Ruben sets high standards for himself, he hadn’t quite hit the straps earlier. But today he did and he started off well for us to throw the first punch,” he said,

Namibia had a fantastic start as George Munsey chopped on his stumps off Trumpelmann on the first ball of the innings. Trumpelmann then made back-to-back strikes on the fourth and fifth ball of the innings. While Calum MacLeod nicked one behind, stand-in captain Richie Berrington was trapped lbw to a full in-swinger.

Trumpelmann hoped they could manage a few more wins in the tournament. “Good result and hopefully we can get a few more. Luckily it went my way today. The victory is for the team and it’s massive for us.”

It was Namibia’s first-ever win in the Super 12 stage of the mega event, going ahead of India and New Zealand while Scotland remain at the bottom of the points table for Group 2.

Former Test captain Jason Holder will be joining the West Indies squad as a replacement for injured bowler Obed McCoy for the remainder of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The ICC’s Event Technical Committee allowed Holder to join the 15-member squad to replace McCoy who was diagnosed with an injury to his right leg.

The ICC Event Technical Committee comprising Chris Tetley (Head of Events, Chair), Clive Hitchcock (ICC Senior Cricket Operations Manager), Rahul Dravid, and Dhiraj Malhotra (BCCI Representatives), Simon Doull, and Ian Bishop (Independent Members) approved the change on Wednesday, the ICC informed.

Holder, who is one of the travelling reserves with the team, will join the squad on Thursday and will be available for selection for Friday’s match against Bangladesh.

West Indies, who had lost both their matches in the event so far suffered the setback when the 24-year-old McCoy picked up an injury in the loss to England.

The 29-year-old Holder, who has represented West Indies in 199 matches including 27 T20 Internationals, played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the recently concluded Indian Premier League 2021 season in UAE.

England opener Jason Roy has credited working “hell of a lot” with reserve player Liam Dawson on improving his game against left-arm spin while guiding England to an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in Super 12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Sheikh Zayed Stadium here on Wednesday.

Roy was awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ for his knock of 61 off 38 balls laced with five fours and three sixes.

“As a batsman, as a cricketer, you always have some darker thoughts going into your mind before the game: What if; this can happen; this can happen. But you just have to remind yourself that your training has been so good. I worked a hell of a lot against Liam Dawson in the nets. He’s been bowling so much to me which has really helped my game. So, I’ve just got to keep reminding myself to do what I do in training, and things will be alright,” said Roy in the post-match press conference.

“I think it’s an area of my game I’ve been working extremely hard on on slow pitches against left arm spinners, spinners, and the angle as such. It was a big game for me to go out there today and put all the hard work I’ve been doing into the nets into play. Credit to the bowlers but still, to knock it off, but yeah, very pleased,” added Roy, who made his 50th T20I appearance memorable.

Roy was in praise of hard-hitting batter Liam Livingstone, who scalped the wickets of Mushfiqur Rahim and Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah with his part-time off-spin, thereby stalling their recovery march. “He’s been working extremely hard. It’s been great having Moeen and Rash on the side as well, and he learns a lot from them and Jeetan Patel, our spin coach, as well, has been giving him some words of wisdom.”

“It’s paying off for him. He’s doing extremely well for us and holding up an average is extremely positive. Especially as the tournament goes on where the pitches might get a little bit harder against spin, who knows, he might have more of a role to play.”

The 31-year-old was appreciative of pacer Chris Woakes, who bowled a tight spell of 1/12, keeping Bangladesh on a tight leash in power-play. “His line and length has been perfect from ball one. On these sorts of pitches as well, that sort of line, that sort of length, it’s incredibly hard to get away as an opening batter. So, he’s running it in and keeping it nice and simple for us and doing an incredible job.”

“Take nothing away from the bowlers. I don’t think we took too much of a foot wrong. We took our catches and fielded and bowled really well. It was a pitch that was on the slow side, and if you bowled straight and on a good length, it was quite hard to get away. We got off to a great start with the bats and then just capitalized on a lower total,” concluded Roy.