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India bows out with win- Kohli’s team eases to a nine-wicket triumph over Namibia

India coasted to a nine-wicket victory over lowly Namibia in the last league match of the Super 12 stage of the ICC World T20 here on Monday. Having already been eliminated, there wasn’t much riding on the outcome of this match for India other than pride.

India bows out with win- Kohli’s team eases to a nine-wicket triumph over Namibia
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Ravichandran Ashwin bowled well in the company of fellow spinner Ravindra Jadeja

Dubai

Required to chase 133, India raced to its target with nine wickets to spare and 28 balls remaining. Openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul slammed half-centuries to make short work of the chase. With victory in sight, Rohit perished for 56 (37b, 7x4, 2x6). Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav then added 50 runs for the unbroken second wicket to seal the deal. Rahul remained unbeaten on 54 (36b, 4x4, 2x6) while Suryakumar was not out on 25 (19b, 4x4).

Earlier, senior spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were just too good for the unheralded Namibia batters as India restricted the minnow to a modest 132 for 8. Already ousted from the tournament, India looked relaxed and the Namibians were all at sea as they are not used to playing world-class slow-bowling operators of this calibre.

Jadeja (4-0-16-3) and Ashwin (4-0-20-3) took six wickets between them for 36 runs to make it a lop-sided contest after Namibia, courtesy its opener Stephan Baard (21) and Michael van Lingen (14), had added 30-plus runs in the first four overs.Once Van Lingen was dismissed by a short ball and extra pace from Jasprit Bumrah (4-0-19-2), the will to fight was not evident on the African nation’s batters when Jadeja and Ashwin jointly operated. Mohammed Shami (0/39 in 4 overs) was the only bowler who had an off-day.

Jadeja saw Craig Williams jumping down the track and pitched on length to get enough away turn. Williams missed it and stood mid-pitch looking completely bamboozled. Baard was out to a typical Jadeja arm ball, which he tried to sweep and was caught plumb in-front.

Once Jadeja got a couple of wickets, it was Ashwin’s turn to get into action as he removed Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton (5), inducing a cut, a shot that landed into slip fielder Rohit’s palms. The ace offie then bowled one with the angle that cleaned up Zane Green (0). In between, he also removed rival skipper Gerhard Erasmus (12).

BRIEF SCORES: Namibia 132/8 in 20 overs (R Ashwin 3/20, R Jadeja 3/16) lost to India 136/1 in 15.2 overs (R Sharma 56, KL Rahul 54*)

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