Ishan Kisha set things up with a 20-ball half-century, Hardik Pandya made a 27-ball half-century and picked up  two wickets. Varun Chakravarthy took three wickets in his first ten balls.

India posted a 200-plus total, and didn’t let Namibia get anywhere near them. Their 93-run win was their biggest in T20 World Cups..

And yet, because of the expectations India have carried into this tournament and the scrutiny that follows them everywhere, this match was also about all the things they didn’t do. When Kishan was taking Namibia’s seamers apart, 300 was a not unrealistic possibility. When Hardik was at the crease, 240 seemed on the cards.

That they only made 209 was down mainly to one man. Namibia captain Gerhard  Erasmus, bowling offspin with the widest imaginable range of release points – high-arm and round-arm, sometimes from well behind the bowling crease – made the most of a Delhi pitch with just a bit of grip in it to take 4 for 20 from his four overs. This included two in his final over, the 19th, which also featured a run-out. And that over began a late and only partially explicable collapse from India, who lost 5 for 4 off the last 11 balls of their innings.

For most part, it was normal service for India against an Associate team. But Erasmus and that late collapse briefly brought the contest to life, and perhaps gave India’s future opponents – including Pakistan, who face them on Sunday and have an artful round-arm spinner of their own – a few ideas.

With a stomach bug ruling out Abhishek Sharma, who had been discharged from hospital on the eve of the match, a door reopened for Sanju Samson. He began his World Cup debut with a flurry of effortless hits – three sixes and a crisp drive for four over extra-cover – before falling for 22 off 8, chipping a Ben Shikongo slower ball straight to deep midwicket.

It was brief, exhilarating, and ultimately told us nothing new. Samson plays a high-variance style at the top of the order, and of late his trigger movement – which takes him deep into his crease and leg-side of the ball – has been getting him into early trouble. He adopted the same trigger in this game, whether he was striking the ball sweetly or being dismissed off a shot he didn’t fully commit to.

In Ruben Trumpelmann and JJ Smit, Namibia have a pair of left-arm quicks who can put big teams in trouble on their day. This wasn’t their day; their angle and lengths kept feeding Kishan’s leg-side repertoire, and he took both bowlers apart while rushing to 61 off 24.

India were 86 for 1 after six overs – their biggest powerplay in a T20 World Cup game – and brought up their 100 in 6.5 overs – no team has got to that mark quicker in a T20 World Cup game.

India seemed on course for a monumental total.

Erasmus brought himself on in the eighth over and struck with his first ball, cramping Kishan on the pull to have him caught at deep midwicket.

The wicket transformed the game, as he and left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz pulled the scoring rate back dramatically. They bowled six overs in tandem from the eighth to the 13th, conceding just 30 runs and picking up two more wickets, with Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma falling in the attempt to hit out.

With the seamers returning, and Hardik and Shivam Dube getting stuck into Scholtz in his final over, India seemed to put their mid-innings lull behind them, scoring 65 from overs 14 to 18. And when Erasmus brought himself back in the 19th, it seemed like he was taking a massive risk, bowling offspin against two set batters with fearsome end-overs records. Hardik pulled the first ball of that over for his fourth six, bringing up his fifty and India’s 200.

The next ball could have gone for six too, only for substitute fielder Dylan Leicher to take a spectacular running, juggling, in-out-in catch on the deep square leg boundary.

Pandemonium ensued. Dube was run out in a mix-up with Rinku Singh. Axar Patel played all around Erasmus’ final delivery, a slow, low-arm grubber. The collapse continued through the final over with Smit – who, along with Trumpelmann, bowled superbly at the death, both nailing their yorkers with a high degree of efficiency – which brought three runs and two wickets.

This was still a daunting total, but imagine the look on Namibia’s face if you’d told them they’d only be chasing 210 when Kishan was blazing away.

Left-right openers Jan Frylinck and Louren Steenkamp looked briefly impressive, both hitting flurries of boundaries off Arshdeep Singh – who went for 36 in three powerplay overs – before falling in the 20s.

They did a good enough job for Namibia to start the eighth over at 67 for 1. Then Varun struck with his first ball, ripping a wrong’un through Steenkamp, bringing a hefty dose of perspective to anyone who might have harboured visions of an upset.

By the time he had bowled ten balls, he had taken three wickets, and the contest was effectively over. Erasmus was still there on the burning deck, having slog-swept Axar for a pair of sixes in ninth over, but the left-arm spinner had his revenge in his next over, and that was pretty much it.

Zane Green and Trumpelmann dragged the game deeper with a seventh-wicket stand of 17 off 27 balls, but once Jasprit Bumrah – playing his first match of the tournament after recovering from illness – ended it with a pinpoint yorker, the end was swift, with Hardik topping off an excellent evening with wickets off successive balls in the 18th over.

Brief scores:
India 209 for 9 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 61, Sanju Samson 22, Tilak Varma 25, Suryakumar Yadav 12, Hardik Pandya 52, Shivam Dube 23; Ben Shikongo 1-41, JJ Smit 1-50, Gerhard Erasmus 4-20, Bernard Scholtz 1-41) beat Namibia 116 in 18.2 overs  (Louren Steenkamp 29, Jan Frylink 22, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton 13, Gerhard Erasmus 18, Zane Green 11; Varun Chakravarthy  3-07, Axar Patel  2-20, Hardik Pandya 2-21, Arshdeeep Singh 1-36, Shivam Dube 1-11, Jasprit Bumrah 1-20) by 93 runs

[Cricinfo]