T20 World Cup: USA beat Namibia by 31 runs, registers second win

Colombo [Sri Lanka], February 15 (ANI): The United States of America (USA) thumped Namibia by 31 runs in match 27 of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 held at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.
The USA batted first and made 199 runs in 20 overs, and then successfully defended the total to secure their second win of the tournament.
The USA opted to bat first after winning the toss. The captain, Monank Patel, and the wicket-keeper batter Shayan Jahangir opened the innings. On the third ball of the match, Shayan was dropped at cover point.
The USA were off to a decent start in the first two overs at the score of 18/0. Both the openers kept on hammering the Namibian bowlers. In the last over of the power play, JJ Smith was hit for 19 runs, leading the USA to a score of 65/0 at the end of the power play.
In the following over after the power play, Shayan Jahangir was dismissed by Willem Myburgh at the score of 22 runs off 18 balls. Patel kept going strong and completed his fifty in the ninth over in just 27 balls.
USA were in a commanding position after ten overs with the score of 88/0. In the eleventh over of Myburgh, the skipper was dismissed for 52 runs in 30 balls with three fours and three sixes.
Saiteja Mukkamalla hammered ten runs off the first three balls of captain Gerhard Erasmus's over before getting sent back to pavillion on the fourth ball of the same over. Sanjay Krishnamurthi was the main culprit of banging Namibia's bowlers as he smashed 20 runs off Bernard Scholtz's 15th over.
Sanjay smashed Ruben Trumpelmann for 26 runs and completed his half-century in just 23 balls in the 17th over before getting dropped on the first ball by Erasmus. This was the third fastest fifty by an associate batter in the T20 World Cups.
Sanjay remained unbeaten with a blazing innings of 68 runs in 33 balls. With ten runs in the last over of Erasmus while losing Miland Kumar at 28 runs off 20 balls, USA ended the innings with a massive score of 199/4.
Namibia openers Louren Steenkamp and Jan Frylinck got a decent start with 14/0 in 2 overs. Both the openers kept on accelerating. Namibia reached a score of 48/0 after the fifth over, after Ali Khan gave 20 runs in the over.
Namibia ended the powerplay at the score of 57/1. They lost Jan Frylinck in the final over of the powerplay to Shadley van Schalkwyk.
Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton and Steenkamp built a major partnership and reached a score of 97/1 after 10 overs. The partnership ended when Loftie-Eaton was dismissed by skipper Saurabh Netravalkar in the 11th over at the score of 28 runs off 17 balls.
Steenkamp completed his fifty in the eleventh over in just 33 balls before being dismissed by Shubham Ranjane in the 13th over for 58 runs in 39 balls with five fours and three sixes.
The run-rate slowed down after set batters got out, with Namibia 125-4 after 15 overs. The match kept slipping away, and Namibia lost by 168 runs after 20 overs. The USA won the match by 31 runs. (ANI)