T20 World Cup 2026.: The Netherlands bounced back after a nail-biting loss to Pakistan in their first clash, beating Namibia by 7 wickets. Bas de Leede stole the show as smashing 72 runs in quick time and guiding his team to their first win of the T20 World Cup 2026.
On Tuesday, Namibia batted first at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi to score 156 runs and on this pitch, that just wasn’t enough. The ground is famous for big totals, so the Dutch were always in with a good shot at chasing it down. They did their job quite easily, losing just three wickets along the way.
Bas de Leede’s explosive innings
In this match, things didn’t start smoothly for the Netherlands. They lost an early wicket at 16, and another at 46. But de Leede, coming in at number three kept his cool. He hammered an unbeaten 72 off 48 balls with five fours, four sixes. Colin Ackermann chipped in too with a handy 32.
For Namibia, Jane Nicole Lofty-Eaton did the heavy lifting, scoring 42 off 38. No one else really got going as none of their batters managed a half-century. Bas de Leede and Logan van Wyk did the damage with the ball for the Dutch. They took two wickets each. Namibia’s bowlers failed to defend 156, and the game slipped away.
Bas de Leede said it was necessary for him to improve his game even more with the tournament in mind. “It’s allowed me to really focus over the last couple of months. With the T20 World Cup in mind, I knew what was required, so I put in a lot of hours trying to improve my game,” said De Leede after the win. With this win, the Netherlands now have 11 victories in T20 World Cup history, which is the most for any Associate team. Scotland sits behind them with eight, and Afghanistan follows with five.
Netherlands Playing XI: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards (c/wk), Zach Lion-Cachet, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt, Roelof van der Merwe, Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen.
Namibia Playing XI: Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (c), JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Dylan Leicher, Ruben Trumpelmann, Willem Myburgh, Bernard Scholtz, Max Heingo
