NAMIBIA’s participation at the T20 World Cup ended in a nine-wicket defeat against India on Monday, but they have certainly made their mark amongst the world’s leading nations.

Namibia posted 132/8, with Stephan Baard scoring 21 and David Wiese 26, but it was never enough, and with KL Rahul scoring 54 not out from 36 balls and Rohit Sharma 56 from 37, India romped to victory with nine wickets and 28 balls in hand.

That defeat saw Namibia finishing second last in Group 2, with only one win in the Super 12 stage of the competition, while the top two teams in the group, Pakistan and New Zealand now progress to the semifinals, with New Zealand taking on England today, while Pakistan take on Australia tomorrow.

With Namibia now due to return home this morning, they can reflect on a great T20 World Cup debut which saw them mixing it with the best on the global stage.

They started the first round with a seven-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka on 18 October, but then shocked the Netherlands when they chased down 164 runs for victory, with David Wiese scoring 66 not out to win the man of the match award.

The former South African international proved to be Namibia’s trump card as he produced several more outstanding performances, winning another man of the match performance in their eight-wicket victory against Ireland on 22 October, after taking 2/22 and scoring 28 not out, to book Namibia’s place in the Super 12s.

Here they got off to a terrific start when pace bowler Ruben Trumpelmann produced one of the outstanding performances of the World Cup, taking three wickets in his first over to shatter Scotland’s top order.

Although Scotland managed to recover to reach 109/8, Namibia comfortably reached the target with Craig Williams scoring 23 and JJ Smit 32 not out.

That was their last victory, though, as they came face to face against some of the world’s top nations.

On 31 October, Afghanistan beat Namibia by 62 runs, after scoring 160/5, while Namibia could only reply with 98/9.

Two days later Namibia had their moments against Pakistan before going down by 45 runs.

After restricting Pakistan to 59/0 off 10 overs, Mohammad Rizwan (79 not out) and Babar Azam (70) took Pakistan to an imposing 189/2, while Namibia replied with 144/5.

Against New Zealand on 5 November, Namibia once again fell well short of the target as New Zealand scored 163/4 with Namibia replying with 111/7.

Following the group stages some of Namibia’s players feature prominently in the individual averages, amongst the top players of the tournament.

Wiese led the way, to finish fourth amongst the top run scorers with 227 runs at an average of 45,20.

Babar Azam of Pakistan was the top scorer with 264 runs at an average of 66,00, followed by Jos Buttler of England (240 runs at an average of 120,00) and Charith Asalanka of Sri Lanka (231 runs at an average of 46,20).

Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus came 19th on the list with 151 runs at an average of 21,57.

Wiese also scored the second most sixes at the tournament with 11, finishing behind Buttler who scored 13.

Jan Frylinck was Namibia’s leading wicket taker and finished eighth overall with nine wickets at an average of 18,66.