🏏ICC Men's T20I WC 2022 - Qualifiers: Group A: NAM vs UAE on Pg 54🏏 - Page 24

Thank you, Raji, for the new post for today's first match. 🤗

Geelong >>

Welcome back to ESPNcricinfo's coverage of the T20 World Cup. After yesterday's action in Hobart where Scotland and Zimbabwe romped home to big victories, we are back in Geelong for Group A action. Namibia, on a high after comprehensively dismantling Sri Lanka, are going to be eyeing a second win to all-but-seal their spot for the Super 12s while Netherlands will be trying to do the same after a narrow win over UAE two days ago. It's a meeting between the two victors from the competition opening day, and both sides will be quietly confident of earning two more points.

The early trend, as predicted over here in Australia, is that batting first isn't a totally bad option. The pitches are still quite fresh given it is early season in Australia, and teams have successfully defended their totals in three of the four matches. Will that be a factor in today's decision at the toss? We expect weather conditions to be cloudy but dry. Meanwhile, go VOTE for our hunt of the greatest T20 World Cup performance ever: today's duel is between two sensational efforts from Pakistan pace bowlers, a blitz from a Netherlands batter and a stunning performance in a World Cup final.

My colleague Alex Malcolm reports: "Weather in Geelong is a little warmer today. It's 21 degrees and not much wind. The ground is virtually empty 15 minutes out from the toss. They are using a different pitch to the one on Sunday. It is a lot drier than the other track and devoid of grass. The players mentioned on Sunday that it didn't look terribly good out in the middle when they were playing on the adjacent track and the groundsman had said they would put some work into it on Monday. It could be a tough decision for captains. There might be a case to bat first and put runs on the board."

Namibia have won the toss and will bat first . The Netherlands captain Edwards also says he would have batted first. One change for them, Timm van der Gugten coming in for Logan van Beek.

Namibia : 1 Divan la Cock, 2 Michael van Lingen, 3 Stephan Baard, 4 Gerhard Erasmus (Capt), 5 Jan Frylinck, 6 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 7 JJ Smit, 8 David Wiese, 9 Zane Green (wk), 10 Bernard Scholtz, 11 Ben Shikongo.

Netherlands: 1 Max O'Dowd, 2 Vikram Singh, 3 Bas de Leede, 4 Tom Cooper, 5 Colin Ackermann, 6 Scott Edwards (Capt, wk), 7 Roelof van der Merwe, 8 Tim Pringle, 9 Timm van der Gugten, 10 Fred Klaassen, 11 Paul van Meekeren.

NAM 4/0 (1)

CRR: 4

Namibia opt to bat

Namibia (1.2/20 ov) 4/1

Netherlands

Namibia chose to bat.

Pringle to la Cock, OUT

And he's gone! Flighted delivery..he tries to dispatch it over long off ands he's caught there!

Divan la Cock c de Leede b Pringle 0 (2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0