India’s Ishan Kishan celebrates after scoring a half-century throughout the 2026 ICC Males’s T20 Cricket World Cup group stage match between India and Namibia on the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on February 12, 2026. Picture: AFP
India tuned up for his or her blockbuster showdown with Pakistan on the T20 World Cup by hammering Namibia by 93 runs at New Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday.
With the high-octane recreation in opposition to their arch-rivals looming in Colombo on Sunday, Ishan Kishan bought within the temper with 61 off simply 24 balls in India’s 209-9.
Namibia, who received the toss and selected to subject, have been bowled out for 116 as India matched Pakistan in making it two wins out of two in Group A.
“The Pakistan conflict will probably be a particular one for everybody,” Kishan informed reporters.
“As soon as we get there, we’ll take a look at the wicket, have an concept of what’s going to be an excellent complete and we’ll play accordingly.”
Opening batsman Kishan was out for 20 simply as he was getting getting into India’s first match in opposition to the US, so was happy to kick on this time.
“Getting runs is all the time an excellent factor for batters. We’ve got been doing nicely from the earlier sequence as nicely, so all these matches that we performed, there was a variety of studying and confidence which we gained,” mentioned Kishan.
Varun Chakravarthy put the squeeze on Namibia who began brightly to succeed in 67-1.
The spinner took 3-7 from his two overs as defending champions India made it 10 wins in a row in T20 World Cups.
Chakravarthy struck along with his first ball to take away Louren Steenkamp for 29 within the eighth over and took two extra wickets in his second over as Namibia tumbled to 86-4.
Fellow spinner Axar Patel took two wickets along with his left-arm spin, together with Malan Kruger, for 5, when Jasprit Bumrah took a excessive, diving catch at brief fine-leg.
Hardik Pandya grabbed two wickets in two balls close to the top along with his seam bowling, however the hat-trick was averted earlier than the innings folded in 18.2 overs.
The federal authorities late on Tuesday reversed its order for the cricket staff to boycott Sunday’s match as a protest at Bangladesh being kicked out of the event.
India high the group from Pakistan on internet run price, and the winner of Sunday’s conflict will probably be assured of advancing to the Tremendous Eight stage as one of many high two within the five-team group.
For India, Sanju Samson struck 22 in eight balls and Kishan smacked left-arm tempo bowler JJ Smit for 4 sixes and a 4 to lift his fifty off 20 balls.
India had raced to 100 within the seventh over when captain Gerhard Erasmus dismissed Kishan with the primary ball of his spell earlier than ending with 4-20 from his 4 overs.
India had a mini-collapse from 104-1 to 124-4 earlier than Pandya, who hit 52, and Shivam Dube, who made 23, rebuilt the innings with a stand of 81 for the fifth wicket.
“Each recreation is essential, we began a bit scratchy however we’re on the highway,” mentioned India captain Suryakumar Yadav after a extra convincing show than the opening 26-run victory over the US.
