All-rounder Hardik Pandya delivered a masterclass as India thoroughly dismantled Namibia by a commanding 93-run margin in their T20 World Cup 2026 Group A encounter at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday. Naturally, this became India’s most emphatic victory by runs in the entire competition. Ishan Kishan and Hardik produced explosive half-centuries as the home side accumulated 209 for 9 after graciously accepting the invitation to bat first. Kishan crafted 61 from 24 deliveries, while Hardik Pandya hammered 52 from 28. Sanju Samson, who stepped in for Abhishek Sharma in the starting lineup, couldn’t quite capitalize on his opportunity despite a brisk 22 from 8 balls. During their pursuit, Namibia began promisingly but somehow forgot to sustain their momentum. They collapsed to 116 all out in just 18.2 overs. Hardik naturally excelled with ball in hand too, delivering impressive figures of 2 for 21.
TOSS-
Namibia won the toss and chose to field.
PLAYING XI-
India (Playing XI):
Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan(w), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
Namibia (Playing XI):
Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus(c), JJ Smit, Malan Kruger, Zane Green(w), Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo, Max Heingo
INDIA-
India’s fresh opening combination of Kishan and Sanju Samson wasted no time announcing their arrival, with Samson unleashing three mighty sixes and an additional boundary in a devastating 22 from merely eight deliveries before generously gifting his wicket to Ben Shikongo in the second over. His exit barely registered as a setback since Kishan proceeded to launch a merciless offensive against Namibia’s bowling arsenal. Kishan reached his fifty in a modest 20 balls, featuring four consecutive maximums against JJ Smit in the PowerPlay’s closing over.
After six overs, India had casually strolled to 86 for 1. The quickest team hundred in Men’s T20 World Cup history arrived shortly afterward in the seventh over, as Kishan continued locating the rope with amusing ease.
The middle phase witnessed Namibia’s valiant attempt to salvage some dignity from this encounter. Gerhard Erasmus dismissed the rampaging Kishan for 61 from 24 balls with his opening delivery, while Bernard Scholtz claimed Suryakumar Yadav, who was stumped for 12. When Erasmus also eliminated Tilak Varma for 25, India had somehow stumbled from 104 for 1 to 124 for 4.
Pandya and Shivam Dube further stabilized the innings itself with an 81-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Basically, Pandya played very aggressively and hit four sixes and four fours to make 52 runs from 28 balls, while Dube scored a solid 23 runs with the same attacking style, including one huge six that went 107 metres.
We are seeing that when India was looking good to score 230+ runs only, the last two overs changed everything as Namibia bowled very well and took back control of the match. Erasmus changed the game in the 19th over as per his bowling performance, regarding which he got Pandya out and bowled Axar Patel for zero runs, while Dube got run out in the same messy time. Smit surely finished the innings by dismissing Rinku Singh and running out Arshdeep Singh on the last ball. Moreover, this final ball run-out completed his excellent bowling performance. India actually lost five wickets for only 10 runs at the end, but their early big hitting definitely helped them reach 210 runs. Erasmus bowled really well and took 4 wickets for 20 runs.
NAMIBIA-
Jan Frylinck surely struggled in the first over against Pandya, but he quickly recovered by scoring a four and six in the next over. Moreover, he continued his aggressive batting by hitting Arshdeep Singh for two consecutive boundaries. As per the match situation, the Indian bowler had the last laugh regarding the dangerous batter who hit a wrong shot on a slow ball after making 22 runs in 15 balls. As per the match, his opening partner Louren Steenkamp hit Arshdeep for 17 runs in the final PowerPlay over with two fours and one six. Regarding this over, it was costly for the bowling team.
Chakaravarthy came after the PowerPlay and further took a wicket on his first ball itself, bowling out Steenkamp for 29. Erasmus actually hit two big sixes against Axar early on, but he definitely got out caught at long-off from the spinner’s next over. As per the match progress, Namibia lost two more important wickets regarding Chakaravarthy’s bowling. Moreover, loftie-Eaton was caught at long-off and Smit was bowled by another googly itself. Further, both batsmen could not handle the bowling attack properly.
Bumrah actually ran past the ball first but then definitely took a sharp catch from Malan Kruger to give Axar his second wicket. The two spinners took 5 wickets for 27 runs in this phase, as per which all momentum was lost and the result became clear regarding the match outcome. The fast bowlers surely came back in the final overs to dismiss the remaining batsmen. Moreover, they completed the task of cleaning up the lower order effectively. We are seeing Ruben Trumpelmann getting out to a perfect yorker ball from Jasprit Bumrah only. Max Heingo actually stopped Pandya from getting a hat-trick after Pandya had already taken out Bernard Scholtz and Ben Shikongo in back-to-back balls of his last over. Pandya definitely finished well with 2 wickets for just 21 runs. Basically, Dube also got a wicket when Zane Green tried to reverse the ball but hit his own stumps with the same bat.
Namibia actually got out for just 116 runs, so India definitely won by a huge 93 runs. Basically, all six Indian bowlers took at least one wicket, with Chakravarthy doing the same but getting three wickets for just seven runs.
We are seeing India scoring 209 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs, with Ishan Kishan making 61 and Hardik Pandya getting 52, while Erasmus only took 4 wickets for Namibia. India won by 93 runs as Namibia got all out for only 116 runs in 18.2 overs, with Chakaravarthy taking 3 wickets.
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