T20 World Cup, India vs Namibia as it happened: Rohit, Rahul guide India to 9-wicket win

India captain Virat Kohli (quotes not verbatim): “Relief firstly (emotions inside me). Look, it’s been an honour. Things have to be kept in the right perspective. As I said earlier, I have to manage my workload. It’s been a lot of fun, great bunch of guys playing together. We’ve enjoyed playing together over so many years. How we played in the last three games was a positive. We were not brave enough in the first two games and we suffered because of that. Big thank you to the coaching staff, they’ve done a tremendous job over the years. They created a great atmosphere, became part of our extended family. A big thank you to all of them from all of us players. If I can’t do that (be passionate and expressive on the field), I won’t play the game. I’m not a guy who will just stand around and do nothing.”

India win by 9 wickets

KL Rahul remains unbeaten on 54 off 36, Suryakumar Yadav on 25 off 19.

India: 131/1 after 15 overs: Fifty for Rahul! A splendid knock by the right-hander. India are two runs away from victory.

India: 122/1 after 14 overs: Another big over as India inch towards victory. This time the right-handers go after Trumplemann. Rahul plays a stylish drive straight over for four before Suryakumar pulls one over mid-wicket.

India: 105/1 after 12 overs: Incredible use of the wrists by Rahul, whipped between two fielders on the boundary in the leg side for four. Nine from van Lingen’s over.

India: 96/1 after 11 overs: A Suryakumar Yadav inside out-lofted shot for four is a lovely sight. Good over for India, 9 off Loftie-Eaton’s 2nd, as the victory draws near.

India 87/1 after 10 overs

Over 9.5: WICKET! Rohit Sharma (56) c Zane Green b Jan Frylinck, India 86/1

Just as my colleague Aditya Chaturvedi told me “10 wicket defeat to 10 wicket win” Rohit Sharma falls, getting all the height but no distance on an attempted big shot. Caught by the keeper.

India: 77/0 after 9 overs: A lovely shot dancing down the pitch and lofting one straight, and its another four for Rohit. This one off Loftie-Eaton.

Half century: 24th fifty in T20Is for Rohit Sharma and this one comes off 31 balls. A couple of mishits early on but typically elegant otherwise. Second of the tournament for him, but as he himself said after his first, he’d be hoping it came earlier.

India: 63/0 after 7 overs: Five singles off Frylinck’s over, was going well for Namibia and then Rahul turns one behind square for four.

India: 54/0 after 6 overs: Good powerplay for India as Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul bring up their consecutive half-century partnership. KL Rahul 15 (12), Rohit Sharma 39 (24)

RAHUL-ROHIT ROLL ON: JJ Smit comes on, and not long after, the 50-run partnership comes up for India. A lovely cut shot by Rahul for four at the start of that over.

India 44/0 after 5 overs (target 133): That KL six apart, it’s all Rohit at the moment. A cut for four and a delightfully timed lofted shot over long on for six. Scholtz taken for 11 in his first over, Rohit keeps strike again.

Review lost: Scholtz appeals for an arm-before-wicket as Rohit goes to sweep. Review shows impact outside.

India 33/0 after 4 overs (target 133): Rohit Sharma becomes the third man and fifth batter overall to score 3,000 runs in T20Is. Second Indian after Kohli. It’s been a bit hit or miss for him tonight, but he has raced to 25 off 15. The next over sees KL Rahul play a shot that pretty much made Watson’s jaw drop on air (if we could visualise from his words!). A superb six off Wiese.

3,000 T20I runs for Rohit Sharma: Watson said on commentary a bit earlier in the tournament that how a batter when he says a bowler return for the 2nd over in a spell inside powerplay, he’d go after him first ball. Rohit does just that, down the ground for four.

India 17/0 after 2 overs (target 133): One ball after completely losing control over a pull shot that falls well short of mid-on, Rohit nails a pick up shot over square leg for six. When it’s your day...

India 6/0 after 1 over (target 133): Almost the wicket of Rohit in the first over for Trumpelmann! Pushed off his hips, not taken by the fielder at short fine.Goes for an unfortunate four. Solid opening over that.

Trumpelmann to Rohit and Rahul. Should be good.

A stat nugget: Assuming he doesn’t do it tonight (with a target of 133) & assuming he’s rested for T20Is against New Zealand, it will be two years since Virat Kohli’s last international century on Nov 23.

A good test coming up for India’s top order against the left-heavy pace battery of Namibia

Namibia 132/8 after 20 overs: A solid batting effort from Namibia despite their struggles against India’s two main spinners. A big last over too as Trumpelmann goes big down the ground for a six and then just about evades Rahul at long on for a four. 0/39 for Shami, he missed his lengths going for the yorker that came in handy against Scotland.

Shami with the last over.

Over 18.5: WICKET! David Wiese (26) c Rohit Sharma b Jasprit Bumrah, Namibia 117/8

Superb change of pace from Bumrah and Wiese’s fighting cameo comes to a close with a mishit shot.

Namibia 114/7 after 18 overs: BIG OVER! A throw misses the target from Jadeja and goes for four. Frylinck and Wiese find the gaps well to help themselves to a few more. A Namibia have now scored more against India batting first than India did against New Zealand at this venue. 12 from Shami’s over (really high time overthrows stop getting added to the bowler’s tally!)

Namibia 102/7 after 17 overs: Bumrah’s radar not at its most consistent today, strays one on to the pad of LHB Frylinck and it is four leg byes.

Over 15.4: WICKET! Zane Green (0) b R Ashwin, Nambia 94/7

Ashwin working his magic against left-handers... a thing of cricketing beauty. Green is bowled by a superb delivery, angling in from around the wicket and straightening late. Three for Ashwin too.

Over 14.6: WICKET! JJ Smit (9)c Rohit Sharma b Ravindra Jadeja, Namibia 93/6

Three wickets in back-to-back matches for Ravindra Jadeja. A superb catch by Rohit Sharma diving forward at short cover, JJ Smit is gone. Jadeja finishes with 4-0-16-3.

Namibia 90/5 after 14 overs: Hasn’t quite gone to plan for Rahul Chahar in his first World Cup game, finishes with 0/30 in his four-over spell. Tries that unique round-the-wicket action that he has, bowls a no ball and then finishes the over with a streaky four. Bit unlucky but didn’t look too threatening.

Over 12.3: WICKET! Gerhard Erasmus (12 ou)t, c Rishabh Pant b R Ashwin, Namibia 72/5

One ball after going wide of the crease and angling one for five wides, Ashwin corrects his line and reaps rewards. Erasmus cuts, caught sharply by Pant.

Namibia 67/4 after 12 overs: Jadeja races through another over.

Namibia 62/4 after 11 overs: Namibia’s two best batters, arguably, in the middle. Erasmus latches on to the short ball and pulls one through midwicket for four. Wiese gets an outside edge past short third for four. Expensive over from Chahar.

Namibia 51/4 after 10 overs: Ashwin is bowling in an other language says Harsha Bhogle on air as he has Wiese double and triple guessing.

Over 9.1: WICKET! Nicol Loftie-Eaton (5) c Rohit Sharma b R Ashwin, Namibia 47/4

Tossed up, spin and bounce and Ashwin does enjoy bowling to the left-handers! Easy catch for Rohit.

Indian spinners have Namibia in all sorts of bother. Ashwin’s turn to strike, this time Loftie-Eaton edges one to Rohit at slip.

Namibia 47/3 after 9 overs: Chahar with another tidy over, some quick running between the wickets there as they try to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Loftie-Eaton joins captain Erasmus in the middle. Namibia need a partnership

Over 7.4: WICKET! Stephan Baard (21) lbw Ravindra Jadeja, Namibia 39/3

And a second wicket for Jadeja... Baard is given out LBW when he attempts a sweep, misses it and seemed straight enough. A review doesn’t save him, all three reds on DRS.

Namibia 35/2 after 7 overs: Chahar comes on for the first time this World Cup, and starts off with a super delivery to Baard. An edge falls just short of Rohit at slip. Just one run from that over.

Two wickets for India inside the powerplay after Namibia got off to a good start. Bumrah removes van Lingen and then Jadeja has Williams stumped. NAM: 34/2 (6)

Over 5.3: WICKET! Craig Williams (0) st Rishabh Pant b Ravindra Jadeja, Namibia 34/2

Williams’ stay in the middle is shortlived. He is down the track well before Jadeja released and boy, he is a long way out of the crease. Easiest of stumpings for Pant.

Jadeja, the star with the ball agains Scotland, is on to finish the powerplay.

Over 4.4: WICKET! van Lingen (14) c Mohammad Shami b Jasprit Bumrah, Namibia 33/1

A second over for Bumrah in the powerplay, and it pays off. The left-handed opener finds Shami at mid-off.

Namibia 31/0 after 5 overs: Ashwin in nice and early as India need some control in the powerplay and provides that right.

Namibia 25/0 after 3 overs: Another 10-run over for Namibia! A superb six over midwicket for Guptill-clone Baard as picks up the length from Shami early.

Namibia 15/0 after 2 overs: van Lingen can tell his grandchildren one day that he took on Jasprit Bumrah in a World Cup match and hit two boundaries in the first over he bowled. A full toss and a length ball put away by the left-hander.

Namibia 5/0 after 1 over: Shami starts off with a near-peach to Baard that nearly squares him up. Good over to start, just 5 runs off it.

Time for action! Ian Bishop confirms on air that India are wearing black arm bands to pay respect to revered coach in Delhi Tarak Sinha.

Time for the national anthems.

What are the learnings from this World Cup? 
Ravi Shastri: First of all, it’s rest. See, I am mentally drained but I expect that at my age. These guys are physically and mentally drained. You know, six months in a bubble... what we would have ideally like a bigger gap between the IPL and World Cup. When the big games come, when the  pressure hits you, you are that not switched on as you should be. This is not an excuse. This is not an excuse, we take defeats because we are not scared of losing. In trying to win, you will lose a game. Here, we didn’t try to win because the X-Factor was missing.  

A quite interesting Ravi Shastri with Ian Bishop. Says he is most proud of how the team competed across the globe across formats. And signs off saying he wished there was a bigger break between IPL and World Cup. We will have the full text from the interview shortly.

Team news:

Varun moves out, Rahul Chahar gets a game. Frylinck, the left-arm pacer, is fit again and he is in for Birkenstock

India XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rahul Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

Namibia XI: Stephan Baard, Michael van Lingen, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus(c), Zane Green(w), David Wiese, Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz

TOSS: Virat Kohli finishes his T20I captaincy tenure with a toss win. Two on the trot, how about that! He opts to bowl first in Dubai.

For Kohli, this wasn’t how he would have liked to end his T20 captaincy stint with the national team having already quit IPL captaincy. It is also the first time since the 2013 Champions Trophy that an Indian men’s team has failed to reach at least the semi-final stage of an ICC event.

06.50 pm: Namibia have managed to beat just Scotland so far in their Super 12 engagements after making the tournament proper for the first time in the T20 format but they have been one of the success stories of what has otherwise been a lacklustre tournament. David Wiese has been a vital addition to their team while Gerhard Erasmus has led an impressive bowling unit well. To their credit, Namibia have competed hard in the Super 12 matches too, not making life easy for Pakistan or New Zealand. One could expect the same in Dubai on Monday.

“Look, we’ve analysed the Indian team. As players, you always look to plan ahead of a game like that or any game,” Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn said ahead of the match.

“We know up front we’ll bat the way they play. If you’re not going to execute your plans and with that execute your skills, then they will punish you. That’s a guarantee.

“We want to finish this campaign on a high. You know, it’s been 45 days in this bubble. There are no excuses. This platform for any player, any player to face the best in the world, is a platform where you should treasure that moment. You should be up for it. There’s no doubt that this team is going to be up for it. I think it’s just important for us to play good, competitive cricket.”

Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the Super 12 Group 2 match between India and Namibia. It is the last match for both these teams at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021. One team is one two Super 12 wins, the other team is on one win... but no prizes for guessing who will be the happier side to step onto the field tonight. For India, it has been a disappointing World Cup while Namibia have had a campaign to remember.