England and Australia enter Super Eight

England’s hopes of defending their title at the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup continued – at least for the time being, beating Namibia by 41 runs (DLS method) at North Sound, Antigua yesterday.

Jos Buttler’s side made 122 for 5 wickets in a truncated match – knowing they had to win to ensure their place in the Super 8s.

Brilliant batting from Harry Brook, who made 47 off 20 balls, got them part of the way there while Brook was named man of the match.

After a mid-innings rain delay, the match was reduced from its original rain-delayed 11 overs a side to 10 overs a side, meaning Namibia had to chase a DLS-adjusted 127 to win.

A heavy defeat against Australia followed by a resounding win over Oman plus a washout against Scotland in the opener had left the defending champions in a perilous position.

With a sizeable target to chase, Namibia’s openers knew they had their work cut out. Having made 44 together with fellow opener Michael van Lingen, Nikolaas Davin retired out at the end of the sixth over.

It brought Wiese to the crease, promoted up the order, and he soon showed why with some epic hitting, notably two sixes and a four in successive Adil Rashid balls.

But the England bowlers did what had to be done, limiting Namibia to a total of 84 for 3 with Brook once again integral, taking catches to remove van Lingen off a Chris Jordan delivery and then to dismiss Wiese off Jofra Archer in the last over.

Meanwhile England chances of super eight was kept alive with Australia beat Scotland in their T – 20 world cup at St Lucia yesterday and the result was not favouable for Scottish team to get their super eight chance as well as it paved the way to give England chance Scotland made 180 for 5 wickets top scored by Brendon McMullen 60 in 30 balls while Australia reached the target with 2 balls to spare scoring 181 for five and opener Travis Head 68 in 49 balls and explosive knock byf Marcus Stoinis hit 59 in 29 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes guided them to go to Super eight with an unbeaten record .

Australia having 8 points head their group B while about England and Scotland having 5 points each but superior net run rate England 3.6111 and Scotland 1.255 decided England to go Super eight with Australia.

Meanwhile India and USA entered the super eight from Group A and former champion Pakistan also eliminated from this group .From Group ‘C ‘Afghanistan head of the points table while West Indies second slot both having 6 points with one game to play. New Zealand also eliminated from Group C after poor performance.

However USA created major upset to defeat Pakistan as well as they entered the super eight and both host countries West Indies and USA passed their first hurdle. The first super eight game between USA Vs South Africa will be played on June 19 in Antigua.

Super Eight teams

Group A – India, USA

Group B – Australia, England

Group C – Afghanistan, West Indies

Group D – South Africa, Bangladesh or Nethlands (both teams have one more match to decide)

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