BARBADOS: Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus won the toss and opted to bowl against Oman in the first game of Group B of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024 match here at the Kensington Oval.

For the first time, familiar foes will face off on the grandest stage.

Namibia and Oman are both returning to the World Cup for the third time in four years, but they were drawn in opposite groups at the last event they both qualified for, and their paths have met relatively rarely in the shorter format at all, despite being familiar as ODI opponents.

Prior to the five-match bilateral series in Muscat in April, the two teams had only met three times in T20s, each as a T20 World Cup qualifier.

Speaking at the time of toss, Erasmus said, “We gonna have a bowl, looks a good wicket and there’s some rain around later maybe. We gotta go out there and show what we are about. We need to execute our skills in the middle.”

Oman captain Aqib Ilyas said they are happy to bat first on a fresh wicket and wants his team to do so without pressure.

“It’s good to bat on a fresh wicket and the ball will come on nicely in the night. Really good to play, lots of plans but this is the time to execute them. Everyone is fit,” Ilyas said.

Namibia (Playing XI): Michael van Lingen, Nikolaas Davin, Jan Frylinck, Gerhard Erasmus(c), Malan Kruger, JJ Smit, David Wiese, Zane Green(w), Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz and Tangeni Lungameni.

Oman (Playing XI): Kashyap Prajapati, Naseem Khushi(w), Aqib Ilyas(c), Zeeshan Maqsood, Khalid Kail, Ayaan Khan, Mohammad Nadeem, Mehran Khan, Shakeel Ahmed, Kaleemullah and Bilal Khan. (ANI)