Namibia has become the first team from the Africa qualifiers to book their spot in the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup after a comfortable 63-run victory over Tanzania in the semi-final, in Harare, on Thursday.
Namibia will play in this tournament for the fourth time, as they were also part of 2021, 2022 and 2024 world cup campaigns. South Africa are already a part of the tournament, and the last African spot will go to either Kenya or Zimbabwe, who will face each other in the other semi-final of Africa qualifiers.
Namibia’s star player was allrounder JJ Smit. He showed brilliant performances with both batting and bowling. Smit scored 61 not out from 43 balls, which included one boundary and four maximums at the strike rate of 141.86, which in turn lifted Namibia from a shaky start to a strong total. With the ball, he took three early wickets of Tanzania’s top batters and conceded just 16 runs at an economy rate of 4.00. Ben Shikongo also bowled brilliantly as he took 3 wickets for 21 runs.
Namibia were sent to bat first but lost four early wickets at the end of the powerplay. Captain Gerhard Erasmus then scored a solid 55 runs from 41 balls which included four boundaries. With Smit, he rebuilt the innings and helped the team reach 174 for 6 wickets in 20 overs.
Meanwhile, Tanzania could not recover from their bad start while chasing the target and crumbled under pressure.
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