Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya scored their first half-century for T20 World Cup holders India against Namibia in a 93-run victory.
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Published February 12, 2026
Defending champions India continued their march towards the Super Eights stage of the Twenty20 World Cup by defeating Namibia by 93 runs in the Group A match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
India took to the bat on Thursday and raised the score to 209-9 thanks to fast batting from opening batsman Ishan Kishan (61 years old) and middle-order batsman Hardik Pandya (52 years old).
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They consolidated Namibia for 116 in 18.2 overs to record their second successive win and lead the group in terms of net run rate. This is because they are better than Pakistan, who also have 4 points from 2 games.
Asia’s biggest rivals clash in a blockbuster match in Colombo on Sunday.
“I think it was a very good match for everyone,” said India captain Suryakumar Yadav.
“It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on. With the way Ishan and Sanju (Samson) started, it didn’t really look like it, but it was a difficult wicket.”
With Abhishek Sharma, currently the top-ranked T20 batsman, still recovering from a stomach infection, the out-of-form Samson has the chance to impress once again when he comes into bat for India.
Samson, 22, also seemed eager to win it. The right-hander hit three sixes but had a poor start and fell in the second over.
Kishan was given LBW for 11, but the opener quickly reviewed his decision and replays confirmed that Kishan had edged before the ball hit his pads.
Namibia hoped that was not the case as Kishan beat JJ Sumit for four consecutive sixes and raced to his 20-ball fifty.
To make matters worse for Namibia, Lauren Steenkamp dismissed Tilak Varma (25) when the batsman was 19.
India needed 4.3 overs to reach 50, but their next 50 came on just 14 balls.
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus (4-20) halted Kishan’s 24-ball onslaught and managed to put the brakes on after the dismissals of Varma and Suryakumar (12 runs).
Pandya and Shivam Dube (23), who hit four sixes, were active in the final stages to take India to the 200 mark.
Despite a positive start from Steenkamp (29) and Jan Friling (22), Namibia continued to lose wickets and fell out of contention for the title.
For India, a reinvigorated Jasprit Bumrah bowled four clean overs and took the wicket of Ruben Trumpelmann with his trademark yorker.
Among the Indian bowlers, Varun Chakravarthy (3 wins, 7 losses) was the pick, while fellow spinner Axar Patel and player of the match Pandya took two wickets each.
“After the powerplay, I thought the dew might make it difficult to bowl and we had chances. But Varun’s magic destroyed our chase,” Erasmus said.
