All-round dominion – What happened the last time India met Namibia in a T20I?

India’s second game as part of the T20 World Cup 2026 is against Namibia, and the only time that these two teams have clashed in T20Is was back in the 2021 T20 World Cup.

In that game, the Men in Blue made easy work of their technically undercooked opposition. However, the situation that India found themselves in was fairly shaky.

With defeats against Pakistan and New Zealand in the first two group stage games, the Men in Blue were on the cusp of being eliminated. However, that didn’t dampen the Indian spirits when they went up against Namibia. Before India take on the same foe back from 2021, here’s a quick look at what went down when these two sides clashed previously.

India won the toss and opted to bowl first in Dubai. Namibia actually had a good start, courtesy of Stephan Baard (21) and Michael van Lingen (14). Jasprit Bumrah dealt the first breakthrough of the evening, claiming Van Lingen. Ravindra Jadeja entered the act too, removing Craig Williams (0).

Namibia soon entered a downward spiral as they lost two more wickets in quick succession in the form of Baard and Nicol Loftie-Eaton (5), reducing them to 47/4. David Wiese (26) was the only one from thereon who put up a show for the Namibians but it wasn’t enough for India to leave their counterparts cornered.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin claimed six wickets between them while Jasprit Bumrah’s figures of 2/19 were instrumental in India restricting Namibia to 132/8. In order to stay alive in the tournament, India needed to win the game early enough and their batters obliged.

KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma hunkered down to the task at hand without any complaints. Rohit smashed 56 off 37, clobbering seven fours and two sixes while Rahul stayed unbeaten for 54 off 36. Rahul struck four fours and two sixes, joined by Suryakumar Yadav who remained unbeaten at the other end for 25 off 19, securing the bragging rights for Team India. Ravindra Jadeja won the Player of the Match award for his rippling performance with the ball in his hands.