India registered their 10th consecutive victory in T20 World Cups and also their biggest victory in terms of runs, as the defending champions crushed minnows Namibia by 93 runs in their Group A clash in New Delhi on Thursday.
Chasing a stiff 210-run target, Namibia were bundled out for 116 runs in 18.2 overs with Varun Chakaravarthy taking 3 wickets off just 2 overs and Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel chipping in with 2 wickets each, as India warmed up nicely for the marquee clash against archrivals Pakistan, that is scheduled for next Sunday in Colombo.
Even though a few Namibian batters got starts, they were unable to convert them into significant scores, as Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube and Jasprit Bumrah also got a wicket each.
Earlier, India reached 209/9 thanks to aggressive half-centuries from opener Ishan Kishan and all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
While Ishan blazed away to a scorching 24-ball 61, Pandya hammered 52 off 28 balls and shared 81 runs for the fifth wicket with Shivam Dube (23 off 16 balls).
Ishan looked imperious as he reached his 50 in just 20 balls as India, who were asked to bat first, reached 100 in the sixth over.
Despite the flat Kotla pitch, the African team made a partial return with the ball in the middle overs, as Sanju Samson (22 off 8 balls) and captain Suryakumar Yadav, who scored 12 runs per ball, were unable to score significant runs.
Left arm spinner Bernard Scholtz delivered Surya the best ball of the innings; he got one to dip and turn as the captain charged, missed, and was duly stumped.
Samson had a fantastic chance to make an impression. The full crowd went into raptures after the three sixes, two of which came from sinewy wrists and one of which went down the ground. Another lovely flip, however, lacked the wings necessary to get past the fielder at the cow corner.
After that, Namibia experienced a small resurgence before India accelerated, with Pandya and Dube in the forefront.
India were going strong at 199/4 at the beginning of the 19th over, but they lost five wickets for only four runs in the closing stages.
From his whole allotment of four overs, Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus returned outstanding figures of 4/20 with plenty of variations.
