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Sri Lanka claim comfortable T20 World Cup win over Namibia

Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Namibia in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup opener as the country paid tribute to Bandula Warnapura.

Players wore black armbands and held a minute’s silence ahead of the encounter for the former Sri Lankan Test captain, who died on Monday at the age of 68.

It was a fitting performance as Sri Lanka were rarely troubled, with Namibia failing to last the full 20 overs of the opening innings.

Sri Lanka claim comfortable T20 World Cup win over Namibia
Bhanuka Rajapaksa claimed an impressive 42 as Sri Lanka eased to victory over Namibia

Stephan Baard and Zane Green were out early before captain Gerhard Erasmus went on 68-3 as he attempted a slog with Namibia desperately looking to put runs on the board.

That signalled a collapse in the middle order as Craig Williams (29) and David Wiese (6) both went for lbw followed by Jan Frylinck for two as Namibia’s batters struggled with pace and spin.

Sri Lanka made light work of the rest of the wickets, with captain Dasun Shanaka’s catch from Ruben Trumpelmann the pick of the rest as Namibia finished on 97.

As convincing the bowling performance was for Sri Lanka, the batting was far less impressive at the beginning of their own innings.

Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka and Dinesh Chandimal were all quickly seen off by Namibia with Sri Lanka 37-3 after the powerplay.

However, any thoughts of a revival were quickly ended by Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Avishka Fernando whose unbroken partnership of 74 saw Sri Lanka over the line with 39 balls remaining – the biggest margin in Sri Lankan T20 history.

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