Fast bowler Ruben Trumpelmann rattled Scotland with three wickets off his first four balls as Namibia won by four wickets in the T20 World Cup on Wednesday.
Namibia looked by far the better of the two ICC associate member nations that qualified for the main draw with Scotland restricted at 8-109.
Namibia stuttered in the middle overs against spinners before JJ Smit (32 not out) carried it to 6-115 in 19.1 overs with a six over point boundary.
It was Scotland’s second successive loss in Group 1 after three wins in the qualifiers.
“Delighted to get another World Cup win,” said Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus.
“Ruben sets high standards for himself. He hadn’t quite hit the straps earlier, but today he did and he started off well for us to throw the first punch.”
READ MORE: NFL coach’s scathing response to ‘joke’ question
READ MORE: South Africa superstar withdraws from World Cup game after directive to ‘take a knee’
In the absence of injured skipper Kyle Coetzer, Scotland slipped to 3-2 in leftarm paceman Trumpelmann’s (3-17) first over with both the runs coming through wide balls.
George Munsey dragged the first ball back onto his stumps. Calum MacLeod was beaten by the bounce and edged behind the wicketkeeper, and stand-in captain Richie Berrington was out leg before wicket off a delivery which swung into the right-hander.
“Disappointing day for us, we were about 20-30 runs short and pretty hard to recover after the first couple of overs,” Berrington said. “Credit to Namibia for bowling so well early on. We’ve got a few days to reflect and recover. One of our strengths is to stick together.”
The other Namibia fast bowlers — Jan Frylinck (2-10), Smit (1-20) and David Wiese (1-22) — challenged the middle order with their variations as Scotland lost wickets with regular intervals. Michael Leask (44) and Chris Greaves (25) fought back in the middle overs to carry Scotland above the three-figure mark in the end.
READ MORE: How Ben Simmons found himself in NBA exile
READ MORE: Bears confirm bid to become NRL’s next franchise
Namibia was cruising to 1-50 by the end of ninth over before Scotland spinners made them struggle with some impressive bowling. Greaves and Mark Watt bowled steady spells of four overs each to finish with identical figures of 1-22.
And offspinner Leask went through the defenses of Erasmus before getting the all important wicket of Wiese (16) when Namibia needed only eight for victory.
Scotland came into the Super 12s off the back of three straight victories in the qualifiers but since then its batsmen have put up two disappointing scores. Afghanistan bowled out Scotland for just 60 in a massive 130-run victory in the first match.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!