ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019, 3rd-place play-off: Ireland v Namibia – Preview, likely XIs, prediction

After losing their respective semi-finals, Namibia and Ireland will battle hard on Saturday, 2 November for the right to finish the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019 as the third-placed side.

Ireland were bested by Netherlands in the first semi-final, with the Dutch easing to a 21-run victory with a comprehensive all-round performance. Later on Friday, PNG – the first team to seal their place in Australia from the Qualifier – booked their place in the final, holding off Namibia by 18 runs.

For Netherlands and PNG, the performances were impressive, but Ireland and Namibia will not mind too much. They have already secured their place for the T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia – their primary objective from the tournament – and will now be hoping to finish the tournament on a high.

Ireland, in fact, can be said to have not fired on all cylinders this tournament, despite finishing top of Group B, which is some reflection of their qualities. Yet again against the Netherlands, there were a few decent performances from the batsmen, but nothing too dominant – Paul Stirling’s 24-ball 29 was their highest individual score. That wasn’t enough to chase down Netherlands’ 158/4.

Similarly, PNG initially seemed to have bungled it when they were kept to 130/5, but it is a mark of the quality of their bowlers and their tight fielding unit that they keep coming through as winners despite low totals – Namibia were kept to 112/5, with the bowlers ensuring some of their big-hitting batsmen had nowhere to go.

It will, therefore, be a question of which of these teams’ batsmen will fire come Saturday. The game could be decided on that.

Head to head

Ireland and Namibia have never clashed in a T20I before. This will be their first encounter.

Key players

Paul Stirling (Ireland): Earlier in the tournament, the veteran Ireland opener broke the record for the highest runs in T20Is in a calendar year, going one better than Shikhar Dhawan in 2018. He has three half-centuries so far in the tournament, and was Ireland’s best player in the semi-final against Netherlands. Expect him to end the tournament with flourish.

JP Kotze (Namibia): The 25-year-old is the rock for Namibia, but he is yet to really kick the door open this tournament. The highest score he has managed is the 36 he scored against Singapore in their final group game. He will be determined to finish the tournament on a high.

Likely XIs

Ireland: Paul Stirling, Kevin O’Brien, Andy Balbirnie, Gareth Delaney, Harry Tector, Gary Wilson (c/wk), Mark Adair, Stuart Thompson, George Dockrell, Craig Young, Boyd Rankin

Namibia: Stephan Baard, Nikolaas Davin, JP Kotze, Craig Williams, JJ Smit, Gerhard Erasmus (c), Zane Green (wk), Christie Viljoen, Zhivago Groenewald, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo

Prediction

Ireland just have too much for Namibia. Expect them to do enough for a win.