England survive wet Namibia test to and Australia-Scotland scare to qualify for Super Eight stage

It had looked for hours that England would be eliminated by the Caribbean rainy season. A wash out would have put them on four points, one behind Scotland, and flying home cursing their luck at losing two group matches to the weather.

Instead England survived the randomness of a 10 over shootout despite wobbling against the new ball with the bat and not taking a genuine wicket until the end of the ninth over.

The match was three hours late starting, getting underway at 4pm. The teams had to be on the field by 4.46pm otherwise Scotland qualified thanks to driving rain more suited to the Cairngorms than the Caribbean.

The delays trimmed it down to 11 overs, another quick shower in the England innings dropped it by another over to 10. 

The Yorkshire life ring of Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook kept England afloat; their fifty stand repairing the wobbles against the swinging new ball that accounted for both openers including Buttler for a four ball duck.

England made 122 for four thanks to Brook’s 47 off 20 and Bairstow 31 from 18, the pair putting on 56 off 30, and with the score readjusted by the DLS equation, Namibia were set an impossible 127 from just 60 balls.

Against Reece Topley and Jofra Archer in good bowling conditions that was a tough ask, but they gave it a go. Namibia took a calculated risk as one of their own batsmen, Nikolaas Davin, retired out on 44-1 from six overs to bring veteran allrounder David Wiese in with 82 needed off four overs. He swung hard in his final international appearance but Namibia fell short on 84 for three.