The T20 World Cup 2026 group clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi saw a strange innings from the hosts. India vs Namibia fixtures usually end in total dominance. But this time, the game on February 12 showed some real cracks in the Men in Blue’s batting. The Indian Cricket Team put up a solid 209/9.
India vs Namibia: 3 Mistakes That the Indian Cricket Team Committed In Batting
Still, the scorecard masked a chaotic finish. They lost five wickets for just four runs in the final twelve balls. Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya smashed quick half-centuries, but the Indian Cricket Team lost their way at the worst possible moments.
This let Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus walk away with four wickets. The final overs looked shaky and lacked focus. In the end, a score that should have cleared 230 turned into a much scrappier total.
1. The Catastrophic Death-Over Collapse
The biggest mistake happened right at the end. The Indian Cricket Team looked ready to bat Namibia out of the park. They were cruising at 199/4 before the nineteenth over started. Then, the batters stopped playing smart and started swinging at everything. Hardik Pandya played a great knock but got out trying for one more six. That started a collapse.
Rinku Singh and Axar Patel went right back to the dugout after him. They basically handed over their wickets to simple slower balls. This breakdown meant the Indian Cricket Team couldn’t take advantage of a tired bowling attack. Losing five wickets in the last two overs showed poor game sense. The players chose big hits over keeping the innings steady. Against a better team, this kind of collapse would be a disaster.
2. Suryakumar Yadav’s Momentum-Breaking Stint
Ishan Kishan got things moving fast with 61 runs off 24 balls. But after that, the middle overs felt surprisingly slow. Captain Suryakumar Yadav is usually the backbone of the Indian Cricket Team, but he couldn’t get going against the spin of Erasmus and Bernard Scholtz. Yadav only managed 12 runs from 13 balls. He couldn’t find the gaps or keep the score ticking.
When he got stumped off a wide, it was clear he was frustrated. This slow patch let the India vs Namibia game swing back toward the fielding side for a bit. If Yadav had kept up the pace Kishan set, the Indian Cricket Team likely would have cruised past 220. He struggled to read the Namibian spinners, which forced the lower-middle order to try and score too fast, too soon.
3. Technical Arrogance Against Spin
The batters played the Namibian spinners like they weren’t a threat, and it led to some soft outs. Gerhard Erasmus is only a part-time spinner, yet he finished with 4/20. That happened because the Indian batters refused to play the ball on its merits. Sanju Samson looked dangerous for a minute, but he threw it away on a pre-planned shot that he didn’t pull off.
ALSO READ: IND vs NAM: Who Is Gerhard Erasmus? The Namibian Captain Who Stunned Delhi
This India vs Namibia in the T20 World Cup 2026 match highlighted a recurring issue: Indian batters attempted to muscle the ball over the fence against slow bowlers instead of using their feet. This overconfidence cost them wickets in bunches. The India vs Namibia scorecard shows a big total, but the way the game actually went tells a different story. The Indian Cricket Team need to fix how they handle disciplined spin before they hit the Super Eights.
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