'A bit rusty', Lasith Malinga slams Sri Lanka after Namibia cause BIG upset in T20 World Cup, check reactions

Sri Lanka lose to Namibia in opening match of T20 World Cup 2022 and reactions start pouring in, check here

Source: Twitter

Sri Lanka began their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign on a bad note with a shocking loss vs Namibia. They did not just lose but were outplayed in all departments, losing the match  by a massive margin of 55 runs. They had begun well with captain Dasun Shanaka winning the toss and opting to bowl first in opening encounter of World Cup. He wanted to see how the track plays and chose a safer option of having a target to chase down. The bowlers delivered too as they sent back three Namibian batters back inside the powerplay. Namibia continued to lose wickets at regular intervals before Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit put on more than 50 runs for the seventh wicket to take them to a total of 163 for 7 in 20 overs. 

Chasing the total, Sri Lanka got off to a bad start and it only went downhill for them from there. Namibia bowled well but much of the Lankan batting fall was to do with self destruction. Shanaka top scored for them with 33-ball 29 as Sri Lanka now needs to find quick answers for their poor batting display. The opponents will only become tougher from here and the qualification might get more difficult. 

Former Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga criticised his players, saying the bowlers have too many runs in the death overs. He said in the mid-innings break that the batters needed to do well. But of course, in the end, Malinga would have felt more disappointed with the batting performance. 

Namibia's match-winning performance surprised many but it did not surprise those who have been following them for many years. They are one of the best Associate sides in the world and have been constantly improving their game. There were three heroies in particular for them. They were Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo. Frylinck was named the player of the match for his all-round show. His 44 off 28 balls helped Namibia recover well and he picked up 2 important wickets as well. Smit also bowled and batted well while Shikongo picked two wickets in two balls to break the back of the Sri Lanka batting lineup. 

Check out Malinga's tweet here and also the fans reacting to Namibia beating Sri Lanka in T20 World Cup opener:

Sri Lankan Cricket fans right now __#SLvsNAM #T20WorldCup2022 #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/neYWTQ5Xne

— Saajid Nazmi (@Saajidn) October 16, 2022

Namibia now have more wins against full-member teams (IRE 2021 & SL 2022) than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the men's T20 World Cups and the same number of wins as Afghanistan and Ireland. #T20WorldCup #SLvNAM #Namibia — Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) October 16, 2022

Too much runs given away at the death. Fast bowlers were a bit rusty. Need one of the batters to get a good 60-70 runs.#SLvsNAM #T20WorldCup2022 — Lasith Malinga (@malinga_ninety9) October 16, 2022