Namibia Beat South AfricaImage Credit source: PTI
Namibia vs South Africa T20: There is no dearth of shocking results in cricket history. Weak teams have a long history of defeating strong teams. From World Cup to bilateral, many times smaller teams have defeated their bigger opponents. But what the Namibian cricket team did would hardly have happened before. Recently, the Namibian cricket team, which qualified for the T20 World Cup 2026, registered the biggest win in its history. On the basis of Ruben Trumpelman’s memorable performance, Namibia defeated South Africa by 4 wickets in the T20 match. This was the first international match in any format between Namibia and South Africa and the smaller African team registered a historic victory.
New stadium and first clash
Saturday 11 October was a very special day for Namibian cricket. Even before the victory over South Africa, this day had proved to be very important for the cricket of this country. Namibia Cricket’s first non-private cricket stadium was being opened in the capital Winhoek. With the inauguration of this ground, the first international match was also played on it and coincidentally what made it special was the first clash between South Africa and Namibia. There had never been a match between the two before in ODI or T20 cricket.
In such a situation, this match between Namibia and South Africa was historical in every respect. However, almost all the key players of the South African team were not available for this match because in less than 24 hours, the first test match between South Africa and Pakistan is starting in Lahore on Sunday 12 October. In such a situation, many important players are in Pakistan for this tour and hence South Africa’s B or C team had reached Namibia for this only T20 match. Despite this, the South African team was considered the contender for victory.
South African batsman did not play
But Gerhard Erasmus’ team did not allow this to happen and restricted South Africa to a paltry score of just 134 runs. Even veteran wicketkeeper batsman Quinton De Kock, who was returning to international cricket after a year, could not get going and was out after scoring only 1 run. After this, fast bowler Ruben Trumpelman (3/28) wreaked havoc, who destroyed the South African middle order. Jason Smith (31) and in the lower order Bion Fortin (19) and Gerald Kotjia (12) scored some runs to take the team to 134 runs.
Historic win on the last ball
The chase was not easy for Namibia also and it had to struggle. The top and middle order, including captain Gerhard Erasmus (21), could not make any significant impact and 6 wickets fell for 101 runs in 16.3 overs. But at such a time, number seven batsman Jane Green (30 not out) kept the innings under control and took the team closer to victory. Namibia needed 11 runs in the last over and Green hit a six on the very first ball. Namibia leveled the score by scoring 4 runs on the next 3 balls. But no run came on the 5th ball, due to which the possibility of a tie was visible. But Trumpelman (11), who had done wonders even before the ball, gave Namibia Cricket its biggest win by hitting a four on the last ball.