Hazlewood and Warner Shine in Australia’s T20 Warm-Up Victory Against Namibia

Namibia 119 for 9 (Green 38, Zampa 3-25, Hazlewood 2-5) lost to Australia 123 for 3 (Warner 54*) by seven wickets.

Nine-man In their first T20 World Cup warm-up match, Australia easily defeated Namibia thanks to an outstanding new-ball performance from Josh Hazlewood, who was supported by four members of their backroom staff. After a poor and injury-plagued IPL season, David Warner found some beneficial time in the middle as he hammered a 20-ball half-century with Australia needing just half the overs to attain their target.

Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald, coaches Brad Hodge and Andre Borovec, and national selector George Bailey were among the four replacements on the pitch at one point. When play started, Bailey and fielding coach Borovec were the preferred substitutes.

Following the IPL, Australia’s 15-man roster is currently down to six players: Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, and Marcus Stoinis. Despite their lack of players, Australia chose to play two warm-up matches because several members of the squad are returning from the off-season and others played little in India.

Hazlewood is one of those who has been at home, and he started the game with an incredible 3-3-0-2 spell, setting a very high standard. Borovec’s catch allowed him to take out Nikolaas Davin for a second wicket. Hazlewood ran Malan Kruger out at the non-striker’s end with a clean shot in his final over.

“Probably a few of us needed to [play] coming off a big lay off…was good to get out there, playing is always different to training,” Hazlewood stated. “It seemed like the ball was emerging fairly well. It’s important to keep things simple by staying close to the top of the stumps, not overly exerting yourself, and allowing the wicket do its job because the wicket appeared a little bit rough and slow early on. This is probably what we will encounter here in the West Indies.”

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Recalled for this particular competition, Ashton Agar launched the attack alongside Hazlewood and finished as the most costly of the specialist bowlers. Due to the absence of players and the infirmity of skipper Mitchell Marsh, Tim David, a part-time offspinner, bowled the entire four overs allotted to him, helping Namibia stagger to 119.

Nathan Ellis, who had just one IPL appearance for Punjab Kings, was frugal with 1 for 17 in his four overs, while Adam Zampa removed the middle order. With Warner and Marsh off to a fast start in the powerplay before the captain was run out due to a mix-up, Australia surged ahead in their pursuit.

After the competition, Warner, who is set to retire from international cricket, reached his fifty-first run against Tangeni Lungameni with the third six of his innings. Josh Inglis failed to score when he chopped against Bernard Scholtz, who also got rid of David, at number three. Australia’s second warm-up match is scheduled for Thursday against the West Indies, the hosts.