Half-centuries from Monak Patel and Sanjay Krishnamurthi set up USA’s second group-stage victory in Chennai and kept their hopes of a Super Eights spot alive, as they held off Namibia’s  charge under the floodlights. Shadley van Schalwyk extended his lead at the top of the tournament wicket-takers’ chart with 2 for 30, the comfortable margin of victory also providing a potentially crucial boost to USA’s net run rate.

Having opted to bat, Monank was given a life before he had scored and made the most of it with a 27-ball half-century that set the USA tempo during the powerplay. Although Namibia reined in the scoring, chiefly through Willem Myburgh’s spell 2 for 22, a partnership of 87 off 47 between Krishnamurthi and Milind Kumar put USA back on track.

Krishnamurthi, in particular, had a USA-supporting crowd on their feet with a scintillating maiden T20I fifty that featured four fours and six sixes, as Namibia’s bowling fell apart during the final straight, 83 runs coming from the last six overs.

Led by Louren Steenkamp’s 33-ball half-century, Namibia were up with the asking rate at the same point of their innings, but they lacked the fireworks to finish off what would have been their highest successful chase in T20Is. They could still play a part in the Super Eights calculation, however, with USA having finished their campaign and left to hope that results in the final three Group A games go their way.

Steenkamp thumped Ali Khan’s first ball through midwicket to get Namibia’s chase off and running, and he was the main aggressor through an opening stand with Jan Frylinck that was worth 54 in 32 deliveries. Khan felt the brunt, as his second over went for 20, Steenkamp crunching fours through cover and point before hauling another six over deep backward square leg.

Frylinck had not got going in the same way, however, and he departed the ball after launching van Schalkwyk for six – curiously, van Schalkwyk’s seventh wicket bowling the sixth over in this World Cup – as Namibia reach 57 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.

Another solid partnership ensued between Steenkamp and Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, with boundaries coming regularly against the spinners, before the latter fell attempting to reverse-ramp Saurabh Netravalkar. Steenkamp notched fifty in the next over, and went on to make his highest T20I score, but became Shubham Ranjane’s maiden wicket in the format, slapping a half-tracker to point. Van Schalkwyk then nicked off Namibia’s captain, Gerhard Erasmus, for a ponderous 6 off 10 with a slippery cross-seamer as the asking rate climbed to 15 an over, from which point the USA seamers shut the chase down.

USA’s captain is their all-time leading run-scorer in T20Is, and he became the first representing the country to pass 1000 runs in the format during this innings. He could – probably should – have been out on nought, though. Ruben Trumpelmann’s second legitimate delivery kicked up and found the outside edge, the ball looping high towards point where it was intercepted by Dylan Leicher – only for the chance to burst through his hands.

Monank settled with a flat six through midwicket off JJ Smit in the second over and then allowed Shayan Jahangir to make some of the early running in their partnership. He began the fifth over by striking Trumpelmann over cover for six more, then collared Smit’s second over to the tune of 19 – lofted six over long-on, slash to deep third, cover-driven four – as USA racked up 65 without loss in the powerplay.

Having got off to a flyer, USA then only managed to score 51 from the next eight overs as the Namibia spinners dragged it back. Jahangir fell in Myburgh’s first over, trying to drag a legbreak to the shorter boundary but top-edging to mid-on, and Monank had another slice of luck when looking to launch the same bowler in the ninth, with neither Frylinck nor Smit committing to going for the chance at wide long-on, as the ball bounced between them for four.

Monank went to a 27-ball fifty with a single off his next ball, but only added two to his score before falling to the Myburgh-Smit combination when trying to clear long-on. And although Erasmus made a loose start when belatedly introduced for the 12th, conceding a six and a four from his first three balls, when Saiteja Mukkamalla became the third batter to hole out, Loftie-Eaton juggling a relay catch at long-on, USA were 103 for 3 with two new batters at the crease

There was an indication of Krishnamurthi’s power when he hauled his third ball, from Erasmus, over the leg side for six. After a couple of overs of reconnaissance against Myburgh and Loftie-Eaton’s legspin, he and Milind went back on the offensive. Krishnamurthi twice smashed Bernard Scholtz’s left-arm spin into the Chepauk stands before Milind went down the ground for his first boundary in an over than cost 20.In the next, Milind went all the way across his stumps to fetch Smit over the short boundary at backward square leg, then Krishnamurthi hit the afterburners in an over from Trumpelmann that went for 26. Again, Namibia hurt their own chances, Erasmus taking an excellent running catch off Krishnamurthi but seeing the ball pop out of his hand as he rolled over. Instead of being dismissed for 32, Krishnamurthi went 4-6-6-6, with a high full toss no-ball thrown in, to bring up his maiden T20I fifty from 23 deliveries.Erasmus and Trumpelmann combined to only concede 24 from the last three, as USA ended just shy of the 200-mark. But the damage to Namibia’s chances had already been done.

Brief scores:
USA 199 for 4 in 20 overs (Sanjay Krishnamurthi 68*, Monank Patel 52, Shayan Jahangir 22, Saiteja Mukkumalla 17, Milind Kumar 28; Willem Myburgh 2-22, Gerhard Eramus 2-27) beat Namibia 168 for 6 in 20 overs (Louren Steenkamp 58, Jan Frylink 19, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton 28, JJ Smit 31, Zane Green 18; Ali Khan 1-43, Saurabh Netravalkar 1-27, Shadley van Schalkwyk 2-30, Shubham Ranjane 1-06) by 31 runs

[Cricinfo]