New Delhi, Feb 10 Bas de Leede produced a commanding all-round performance as the Netherlands beat Namibia by seven wickets in their Group A clash in the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
Asked to bat first, a disciplined bowling performance led to Namibia making 156/8 in their 20 overs. Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton top-scored with 42, while Gerhard Erasmus and JJ Smit hit brief cameos, but all of them failed to convert their good starts into a substantial knock.
The inability to build a decisive partnership also left Namibia short of posting a competitive total on a tacky pitch. Apart from de Leede picking two wickets in the middle overs, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt and Colin Ackermann also played their part in containing Namibia’s batters.
De Leede then took charge of the chase by hitting an unbeaten 72 off 48 balls, laced with five fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 150. He muscled the ball to all parts of the ground, combining clean hitting with smart rotation of strike. His 70-run stand with Colin Ackermann steadied the chase before captain Scott Edwards joined him to apply finishing touches, as the Netherlands reached the target with two overs to spare.
All the stats from the Netherlands vs Namibia match
353: Number of runs scored by Bas de Leede across 10 innings, all while chasing.
176.50: The batting average of Bas de Leede across matches the Netherlands won. He scored these runs with the strike rate of 132.7.
8: Number of matches won by the Netherlands in T20 WC while chasing. The seven-wicket margin today being the highest one.
50: Number of runs added by Jan Frylinck and Jan Nichol Loftie for the second wicket. The highest second-wicket partnership for Namibia in the WC. The previous record stood in the name of Erasmus and Zane Green, who added 48 runs.
7: Gerhard Erasmus made history in the T20 World Cup by taking seven catches. This is the most catches by any Namibian fielder in a single tournament edition. In doing so, Erasmus surpassed the previous national record held by van Lingen, who had taken six catches.
5: Number of half-centuries scored by Bas de Leede (72 not out) in T20I in 47 matches. It was his first vs Namibia in 3 matches.
--IANS
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