Berrington and Leask launch Scotland to landmark victory

Scotland produced a stunning run chase to beat Namibia by five wickets in the T20 World Cup 2024. Returning to the Kensington Oval after their washout against England, they achieved a target of 156 with nine balls to spare, securing their first T20I victory over Namibia at the fourth attempt.

A 74-run partnership between Richie Berrington and Michael Lesak, ultimately, saw Scotland home. Berrington finished 47 not out after Leask injected impetus into the chase with a 17-ball 35.

Namibia captain Gerhard Eramus had earlier turned matters in his side’s favour with the ball, taking 2 for 29 after his 52 underpinned their 155 for 9 in the first innings.

Erasmus’ decision to win the toss and bat first on what has been an unpredictable Kensington Oval pitch was not immediately vindicated as Namibia found themselves 55 for 4, thanks largely to the excellence of the new ball pair of Brad Wheal and Brad Currie.

But Erasmus put the Namibia innings back with his 11th fifty-plus T20I score, 37 of which came in a rebuilding stand of 51 with Zane Green for the fifth wicket.

Despite losing George Munsey earlier in their chase, Scotland had chipped off 49 midway through the eighth over for the loss of just one. Michael Jones stepped up the gears, scoring 15 of the 18 runs in the final over of the powerplay, but Erasmus returned to the fray with to instigate a collapse.

With his wily offspinners at one end, and Bernard Scholtz’s slow left-arm at the other, the pair pocketed three wickets between them as Scotland fell from 49 for 1 to 73 for 4 after 11 overs.

It was at that point Leask joined forces with Berrington to take Scotland to the brink with a 42-ball partnership that included seven boundaries, including four sixes from Leask. Though he would fall, Berrington finished the match off in style, carting David Wiese into the pavilion at long on as Scotland triumphed to put them top of the group.

How about that for a cameo? In just 17 balls, Leask turned this chase upside down and inside out. He arrived at a time when the boundaries had dried up, with Scotland requiring 80 from 50 deliveries. By the time he was done, that equation was 9 from 13.  After playing out a dot ball first, he was never below a run a ball, and would score off all but one of his next 16. He was the ideal foil for Berrington, who, having been out there from the 10th over, was finally getting to grips with the pitch.

Once Berrington had blown the horn on the boundary pursuit with a six and four off consecutive deliveries from Tangeni Lungameni, Leask took the lead. Erasmus was the first to get it, heaved to midwicket for the first of Leask’s four sixes.

Then came the killer: a 17th over that went for 19. David Wiese, the hero of Namibia’s Super Over victory over Oman, was treated with disdain, sent over the sponge at cow corner twice by Leask – strikes which sandwiched a Berrington four in the same region.

Leask’s final six was his biggest of the lot – reading a slower ball from Ruben Trumpelmann and sending it back with interest over to the leg side for all of 101 meters. The scale of the strike was more than its distance as it took Scotland’s ask to under a run a ball for the first time in the innings.

After Michael Jones had blitzed the sixth over, Erasmus decided to take pace off. Together with Scholtz, they set about pinning Scotland’s middle order down.

Erasmus operated exclusively around the wicket, darting his off breaks across the right handers, limiting their scoring by restricting their ability to swing straight. Jones’ half-hearted attempt to do so resulted in a caught behind. An absent-minded Brandon McMullen was then stumped at the second attempt after dancing down the pitch and failing to reclaim his ground with his back foot.

Scholtz was subsisting on a wicket-to-wicket line at the other end, a frugal tactic that saw him go for just one boundary. In a bid to break the shackles, Matthew Cross fell lbw attempting to sweep a ball that was a touch too short to sweep. It spoke of the panic Namibia had concocted at the time. After a Powerplay of 43 for 1, the next six overs had produced 35 for 3.

“It would be better if had come in a win,” bristled Erasmus at the end of the match. He’s right, of course. For the longest time, it looked like it would.

Before his two wickets had tilted the chase Namibia’s way, his 52 from 31 had made the game competitive. The knock was an anomaly in a stodgy batting effort where opener Nikolaas Davin was the only other Namibian top-order batter to strike in excess of 120. Erasmus struck his second ball for six, and his third for four – both coming at the start of the sixth over, as Scotland tried to sneak six balls from Mark Watt in at the end of the powerplay. The point region was peppered throughout, likewise midwicket, for all of his seven boundaries.

Who knows how long he could have gone on had he controlled his aggression instead of trying to blast Leask over his head after slog-sweeping him for six the ball before. The strike saw him pass JJ Smit’s record of 51 T20I sixes for Namibia. Had others stood up, he would have been a worthy Player of the Match.

In a tournament where the out-and-out quicks are already dominating the column inches, Currie put in a display that showed there is glory to be had with mediums.

The 25-year-old has been doing that for a while, both domestically for Sussex and with Scotland, coming into this match with a T20I record of 19 dismissals and an economy rate of 4.94. Those numbers have now moved in different directions after 2 for 16 from his four overs.

Currie had the ball on a string throughout, mixing up cutters and the odd cross-seam delivery amongst his stock deliveries. The left-armer’s first two overs utilised the swing on offer with the new ball, assisted by Cross standing up to the stumps to keep Davin and Jan Frylinck honest.

While Davin was able to impart his own pace on the ball to strike a four through backward point in the fourth over – the only boundary against Currie – Frylinck played on when attempting to do the same two balls earlier.

He returned for the 11th over, before conceding just three runs off the 19th, in which he varied his lengths to prevent the lower order from hitting down the ground. Trumpelmann’s attempt at a six into the wind gave Currie a well-deserved second wicket.

Brief scores:
Scotland 157 for 5 in 18.3 overs ( Michael Jones 26, Richie Berrington 47*, Michael Leask 35; Ruben Trumelmann 1-36, Tangeni Lungameni 1-39, Bernard Schultz 1-20, Gerhard Eramus 1-29) beat  Namibia 155 for 9 in 20 overs (Nikolaas Davin 20, Gerhard Erasmus 52, Zane Green 28; Brad Wheal 3-33, Brad Currie 2-16, Chris Sole 1-23, Chris Greaves 1-24, Michael Lesak 1-16) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]