NZ VS NAM - 36th Match, Super 12 Group 2, ICC Mens T20 World Cup 2021

New Zealand lost their first match of the tournament against Pakistan, but they've bounced back in an emphatic style to win three matches on the trot. Their next match is against Afghanistan and they'll be looking forward to replicating their performance against the Afghans to book a berth in the semis, rather than relying on the net run rate to take them through. That's all from our side from this game. You can switch tabs and follow the live coverage of today's second match as India take on Scotland. Can India win big and keep their semi-final hopes alive? We shall find that out later tonight. For now, this is Nikhil Jadhav signing off on behalf of Akshay Maanay, Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Kumar Abhisekh Das and Mukesh Gowda. See you!

Kane Williamson | NZ captain: I think we all know what we have to expect here (Sharjah), it's a real scrap. We tried to maximise that short side, it was a challenging surface. The guys played well to get us to 160. You need to build those partnerships and trying to maximise towards the end. An over or two can crack the game, that was our focus today. We got some reasonable match-ups and got what's about par on this wicket. They (Afghanistan) are a strong side and they have played good cricket, they have some match winners throughout their team. Looking forward to that challenge. It's a different venue so we need to make those adjustments quickly, it's the nature of this tournament. You got to play at different venues and adjust quickly.

Gerhard Erasmus | Namibia captain: I thought we bowled well for a while, probably for the first 15-16 overs, but the death overs didn't go according to the plan. We need to go back and make plans for the death overs. It's all about using the right bowler at the right time towards the end. We got one more game so we need to try and nail that aspect, so hoping to do that against India. It was quite a tough pitch though. 160 was a bit too much on that wicket. As I said it got away from us towards the end.

James Neesham | Player of the Match: It was a two-paced wicket, there were talks about the repercussions if we had lost today, but we were not thinking about the wicket, we needed to do well and the key for us was to set a par total, the way we went out there and played on a challenging surface, I'm pleased with it. We were just trying to get bat on ball as much as possible, the boundaries were tough, we were also targeting the shorter side, we thought anything more than 150 would be pretty good. I'm fresh and I can bowl four if required, but we do have five specialists and I make up the sixth, I'm happy and ready to bowl when needed.

17:20 Local Time, 13:20 GMT, 18:50 IST: New Zealand have jumped to the second spot in the points table as a result of this comprehensive victory. It was a decent effort by Namibia to reduce New Zealand to 87/4, earlier in the day, however, Glenn Phillips and James Neesham had a match defining partnership as they added 76 runs in 6 overs and powered the Kiwis to a competitive total of 163/4. In reply, Namibia got off to a decent start, as their openers added 47 runs, but with the kind of bowling attack NZ possess, chasing such a stiff target was always going to be tough. Kane Williamson made the right calls and was spot on with his bowling changes. Southee came back at the right time to get Wiese and from there on it was just a matter of time. Boult and Southee choked Nambia as they were beaten by a big margin. Time for the presentations..

Milne to Smit, no run, a clinical performance by NZ as they beat Namibia by 52 runs! Another slower bouncer by Milne which Smit clearly has no clue about. Swings his bat early, only to get beaten

Milne to Smit, no run, right into the blockhole on off, Smit backs away and steers this to point

Milne to Smit, no run, shortish bouncer by Milne, Smit goes for a pull, gets beaten

Milne to Trumpelmann, 1 run, right into the slot around middle and leg, Trumpelmann heaves this to long-on for one

Milne to Trumpelmann, FOUR, pitched up by Milne, Trumpelmann frees his arms and thumps it over mid-off where Boult tries his best to grab it with his right hand, but to no avail

Milne to Trumpelmann, no run, short of a length outside off, slower delivery by Milne that shapes in and beats Trumpelmann

Adam Milne [3.0-0-20-0] is back into the attack

Boult to Trumpelmann, 1 run, two wickets in his final over and Boult's done for the day. Fires this one on a yorker length outside off and Trumpelmann opens his bat face to squeeze this to point

Ruben Trumpelmann, right handed bat, comes to the crease

Boult to Craig Williams, out Caught by Glenn Phillips!! And the procession of wickets continues. Namibia are throwing their hands at everything, and in the process, they're throwing away their wickets too. They have no other choice either. This was fuller outside off and the batter got a leading edge as he threw his hands at it. The fielder at backward point takes it and NZ inching closer to an emphatic win. Craig Williams c Glenn Phillips b Boult 0(2)

Boult to Craig Williams, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Boult to Craig Williams, wide, slower delivery outside off, Craig Williams tries to reach out, but it was very wide. Think there was an edge and UltraEdge confirms it

Boult to Craig Williams, no run, fires in a yorker outside off and Craig Williams is a tad too late to bring his bat down, beaten all ends up

Boult to Smit, 1 run, goes full now and Smit has lofted it to long-off for one

Craig Williams, right handed bat, comes to the crease