Sharjah: Glenn Phillips and Jimmy Neesham took the Namibian attack to the cleaners and propelled New Zealand to 163 for four in their T20 World Cup game here on Friday.
New Zealand were struggling at 87/4, but brutal hitting by Phillips (39 not out off 21 balls) and Neesham (35 not out off 23 balls) ensured that the Kiwis were back in the game.
The duo added 76 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket in just 36 balls. While Phillips hammered one four and three sixes, Neesham struck one boundary and two maximums.
Courtesy Phillips and Neesham, Kiwis, amassed 53 runs in the last three overs.
Asked to bat, New Zealand opener Martin Guptill (18) fell in the fifth over, after offering a simple catch to Ruben Trumpelmann at mid-off, off David Wiese (1/40).
Guptill launched into left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz (1/15), hitting him for a maximum over long-on.
In the fourth over, Daryl Mitchell (19) got his first boundary, straight down the ground off Johannes Smit, as the Kiwis raced to 30/0 after four overs.
But Namibia pegged the Kiwis back by sending both the openers to the dressing room. First Wiese broke the 30-run opening stand by dismissing Guptill and then Scholtz dismissed Mitchell, who was caught in the deep by Michael van Lingen in the seventh over, as the Kiwis slipped to 43/2.
Skipper Kane Williamson (28) and Devon Conway (17), then tried to rally the innings with their 38-run stand.
Williamson opened his arms in the 11th over, hammering a maximum and a four on successive balls off leg-spinner Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton.
But Williamson was cleaned up by rival captain and leg-spinner Gerhard Erasmus (1/22), in the 13th over, with New Zealand reaching 81/3. It soon became 87/4, as Conway was also run-out.
After a slow start, it was the Phillips and Neesham show as they upped the ante from the 18th over, when they launched into Wiese, grabbing 21 runs off it.
PTI
