T20 World Cup 2022: David Weise exploits in vain as UAE edge Namibia by 7 runs; Netherlands enter Super 12

Geelong, Oct 20: David Wiese's valiant half-century went in vain as United Arab Emirates (UAE) held on to their nerves to edge Namibia by 7 runs in their last group stage match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 here at Simmonds Stadium, Geelong on Thursday (October 20).

With this defeat, Namibia's dream of making it to their second consecutive T20 World Cup Super 12 stage were dashed as they failed to finish in the top two in their group. Namibia's loss ensured the Netherlands finished second in the group and qualified for the Super 12 due to a better net run rate than Namibia and UAE.

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UAE, meanwhile, tasted their first victory of the marquee event and ended their campaign with a consolatory win. They will take plenty of positives from their performance in Down Under, especially their bowling.

Having posted a decent 148 for the loss of three wickets after electing to bat first, UAE bowlers survived the late scare and restricted the opposition to 141 for 8 in the stipulated 20 overs.

At one stage Namibia were reeling at 67/7 in 13 overs, but then David Wiese and Trumpelmann stitched a record 70-run partnership for the eighth wicket, the highest in T20 World Cup history, to bring their team back in the game. Wiese - the seasoned campaigner - kept the team's hopes alive and notched up his fifty off 31 balls.

With 14 required off the final over, which was being bowled by Muhammed Waseem, all eyes were on Wiese but the senior pro failed to take his team home and was dismissed on the fourth delivery.

Earlier in the day, Waseem's composed fifty and skipper CP Rizwan's unbeaten 43 from 29 deliveries helped the UAE to post a competitive total. The UAE batters played very carefully in the first half of the innings as the opening pair of Muhammad Waseem and Vritya Aravind put on just 39 runs in eight overs. Aravind struggled to accelerate and got dismissed for 21 from 32 deliveries, but the UAE accelerated once Rizwan joined Waseem at the crease.

Waseem played a steady knock and was out after scoring fifty in the 15th over of the innings. But Rizwan carried on and remained unbeaten on 43, whereas Basil Hameed provided the late impetus to their innings, remaining unbeaten on 25 from just 14 deliveries. The duo added 33 runs in the last two overs as UAE reached a competitive total of 148/3.