Sharjah, Oct 23 (IANS): After a historic win over Ireland, Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn on Friday said that facing teams like India, Pakistan and New Zealand in the ongoing T20 Men's World Cup will be a great experience for his players and they will try to be as competitive as they can on the field.
A terrific performance by Erasmus (53 off 49) and David Wiese (28 runs and 2 wickets) powered Namibia to the Super-12 stage with a comprehensive eight-wicket win over Ireland in Sharjah. They will now meet India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and Scotland in the Super 12 stage.
"Facing India, Pakistan, New Zealand, those type of teams is going to be a great experience for these players, but you know, we want to be competitive in whatever we do, with the ball, bat, in the field, the way we present ourselves, the way -- we're going to compete, so we're looking forward to that," said De Bruyn.
The coach also mentioned that this historic victory will have a deep impact on Namibia. He spoke about his advice to players before the game.
"Oh, I can just imagine what's going on in Namibia right now. It is a Friday afternoon there, so they'll be ecstatic. It will be a late-night for the supporters back home," he said.
"But the planning for us going into this game was calm planning. If you look at this surface here and the conditions, it actually suits us. That's what we get back home. We had a solid game plan. We made sure that we stuck to it. It was quite simple: Don't leave the stumps, play straight and take it deep," he added.
Talking about the cricketing resources in the country, the coach said it needs a little more investment.
"...when it comes to the normal resources, if you measure yourself against full members, we're way off in terms of our facilities, full-time coaches, full-time SNCs, doctors, all of that. But we've got a saying that we've got to find a way," said Bruyn.
"As a coach myself, I've really made sure that the players and us as a group, we just use our opportunities. We don't have everything, but these times are like we're sitting here winning a cricket game knowing that we're going to the next World Cup. We know financially it makes a difference and we can upscale and we can invest a little bit more in our resources," he concluded.