Netherlands vs Namibia, 10th Match, Group A, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

That's it from this game. We will see you on the New Zealand v UAE game where the toss is happening right now. Catch you on that one. Bye bye for now.

Scott Edwards | Netherlands captain: "Yeah, pretty good day I thought, I think we probably got a little bit of the better conditions there. I thought our guys bowled really well through the powerplay, and obviously taking those wickets late and restricting them to what we thought was, yeah, a little bit below-par score. (on Namibia having a lot of left-handers) Yeah, I think, you know, we back our right-arm offies to bowl to all, you know, left-handers and right-handers, but it is nice when there's a few left-handers through the middle there and we can sort of keep bowling that spin at them. So, you know, I think in the end they actually negated it quite well, but yeah, I thought the bowlers all-round were quite good. (on Bas de Leede) Yeah, you know, he does it all, doesn't he? I thought he was sensational with the ball there, he obviously bowled his first over, I think, in about the 10th over there and just really took control of the game for us. And then was pretty clinical with the bat as well. (what was the plans at the chase?) You know, we give our openers freedom to try and express themselves, so I thought we had a decent sort of powerplay there. It would have been nice maybe to be one-down, but you know, we back our guys to go hard and get us ahead of the game. (on Levitt) Yeah, he's been massive for us over the last few years. I mean, he's such an aggressive batsman. He's got a lot of power behind him and he sort of puts bowlers off their lengths. So, yeah, he's been really good. It was nice for him to get away there and I'm sure he's got a real big one coming around the corner. (on their next game) Yeah, massive, obviously. I think, you know, we've got to win that game to give ourselves a chance. So we'll be obviously travelling tomorrow and then getting really, getting ready for that game and hopefully put in a good performance."

Gerhard Erasmus | Namibia captain: "Yeah, I thought we did reasonably well, you know, sitting in the powerplay, I thought it was quite a tacky wicket in the start of the morning. So I thought that 42 for one mark was probably a little bit low on runs, but really good in terms of assessing where we are in the game. We saw the ball really stopping a little bit there off spin. So all in all, I thought we did a decent job until the halfway mark, 11-over, 12-over mark to try and get to a competitive total, but we couldn't quite, you know, push, push that total nice and deep. I thought there was a big, you know, some big moments in those last three overs that just didn't allow us to maybe get to the 165, 170 mark and then put some pressure with the ball. (on their death batting) Yeah, I think it's just a matter of, every individual taking ownership of his game and his performance. I felt guys tried their best to get a big partnership going, but it probably wasn't quite the wicket to, you know, like hit out on. Lost wickets at crucial stages, all in all quite happy in the way the batsmen tried to apply themselves and get upwards of 160-170. Didn't get there today. (on the chat at the halfway stage) It was a matter of you know, applying pressure first. I think there's still enough in the wicket to, you know, try and get a bit of pressure going. But it's always tough to manage that when you have, when you feel like you're 10, 20 runs shy, you have to make extra couple of changes. You have to sort of buy a wicket here and there or buy a over here and there. Didn't quite happen. We tried our level-best in periods, but couldn't quite, have enough on the board I guess to apply that pressure and get a win. (on their next game) Yeah, I guess getting accustomed to the lights. It's going to be a super-loud game, I suppose. So trying to just figure out those two things and yeah, enjoy the occasion. If you enjoy the occasion, I think your body language should be really positive and the results should follow."

Bas de Leede | Player of the Match: "I think we were lucky to bowl first. Gave us a good look at the wicket and I thought we adjusted really well as a bowling group. And then batting-wise, later in the game, I feel like it started skidding on a bit. So, again, credit to the batters for adjusting to that. (on what length to bowl here) Probably a touch shorter than normally. We felt the wicket was a little bit sticky. So both spinners and seamers were trying to bowl a little bit shorter. Trying to get guys to hit balls that weren't really there for them. (on his batting) Down the ground. I think as a batting group, we speak a lot about adapting to conditions and you saw guys coming in who were looking as straight as they could. Which I think was best suited on this wicket. (on him committing to international cricket) It's allowed me to focus, especially the last couple of months. Obviously T20 World Cup, I knew what was needed for that. So spent a lot of hours trying to improve my game."

Stats by Roshan Gede

Most wins for Associate teams in Men’s T20 WC
11 - Netherlands
8 - Scotland
5 - Afghanistan
5 - Namibia
3 - Ireland

Netherlands’ win/loss ratio of 0.647 is the best among the 15 Associate teams to have featured in the tournament till date.

Bas de Leede in T20I run-chases
In wins: 10 innings, 353 runs at 176.5 (eight not-outs), SR: 132.7
In defeats: 14 innings, 197 runs at 15.15, SR: 100.51

Eight of Netherlands' 11 T20 WC wins have come while chasing, the seven-wicket margin today being the highest among those.

14:03 Local Time, 08:33 GMT, 14:03 IST: Such a convincing chase this. Levitt set the pace early on after the loss of O'Dowd. Then Bas de Leede with an attacking innings to see his side home. Hit the ball hard and muscled it to all parts. His stand with Ackermann put Netherlands on their way. And the end came quickly as Scott Edwards and Bas de Leede hit sixes off Loftie-Eaton to finish it off with two overs to spare. A good batting wicket and Namibia didn't have many on the board or the penetration in their bowling to trouble Netherlands. It's also Netherlands' biggest win in terms of wickets in the T20 World Cup. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff....