Virat Kohli did not have to break a sweat in his final match as India’s T20I skipper. Openers Rohit Sharma (56) and KL Rahul (54*) combined for a 86-run opening partnership to chase down Namibia’s 132 in 15.2 overs, finishing India’s T20 World Cup campaign with a 9-wicket win in their final group game.
There was a farewell mood to the inconsequential tie in Dubai on Monday. It was also the final match of head coach Ravi Shastri and his support staff with the India team. Shastri set the tone, speaking to broadcasters before the match by calling the team he coached under Kohli’s captainship as “one of the great teams in the history of the game”. Kohli spoke of the “honour to captain India”.
Toss and the undue advantage for chasing sides at evening games in Dubai has been a recurring line coming from the Indian camp after failing to make it to the knockout rounds. To stress home the point, Kohli chose to bowl after calling the toss right. His bowlers looked flat in the first few overs. It’s never easy lifting your game with the knowledge that you are out of championship contention.
For Namibia, as their senior player David Wiese said, it was an opportunity to impress. Namibian openers got some boundaries away in the first four overs, before Jasprit Bumrah dared them with a bouncer. Michael van Lingen (14) failed to flat bat it over the inner ring to become the first victim.
Wiese top scored with 26, but the rest of his team-mates found run-scoring difficult against India’s bowling class. In the end, 37 runs in the final four overs gave the Namibia total some respectability.
