Buoyant USA look to stay alive in Super Eights race

Namibia, meanwhile, are winless after two matches

Alagappan Muthu

Feb 14, 2026, 12:04 PM • 3 hrs ago

Big picture - USA with an outside chance

Whoever wins India vs Pakistan will go through to the Super Eights, which has implcations for the rest of Group A, in particular USA. They'll want whoever slips up in that match to slip up again. If that happens, a most unlikely team might just find a way through to the next round. In this Valentine's season, even the T20 World Cup is playing a bit of will they, won't they.

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Illness and injury play havoc with USA's plans

USA are at the centre of the drama. They came into this tournament with enough administrative upheaval that the ICC had to step in and take charge of their selection. Then they lost one of their batters after he was linked to a corruption incident. Romcom wisdom is ironclad. You always have to be careful around bad boys. India almost weren't, Netherlands certainly weren't, and now we have a situation where USA are side-eying the Super Eights. But first they have to beat Namibia, who have played two and lost two and will be looking to channel that hurt into something tangible on the field.

Form guide

USA WLLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Namibia: LLWLW

In the spotlight - Frylinck and Ranjane

Jan Frylinck made the highest score by a Namibia batter in T20Is when he hit 134 in the Africa Region Qualifier against Nigeria in September 2025. He showed good form in the World Cup warm-up matches last week, scoring 88 against Scotland in Bengaluru. At the tournament proper, he's made 30 off 26 and 22 off 15 and will want to do more.

Shubham Ranjane followed up a half-century against Pakistan with an unbeaten 48 off 24 against Netherlands. He exemplifies how the year-round T20 league version of cricket can pull players up. The allrounder who couldn't break through with Mumbai now has contracts in SA20, ILT20 and MLC and came to the World Cup on the back of a playoffs run with Joburg Super Kings.

Team news - Will Gous play?

Andries Gous is crucial to USA's batting strength but he hasn't been able to play their last two matches due to illness. If he recovers, he could come back in for Shayan Jahangir now that Saiteja Mukkamalla has cemented himself at No. 3 with his match-winning fifty against Netherlands.

USA (possible): 1 Monank Patel (capt), 2 Andries Gous/Shayan Jahangir (wk), 3 Saiteja Mukkamalla, 4 Sanjay Krishnamurthi , 5 Shubham Ranjane, 6 Milind Kumar, 7 Harmeet Singh, 8 Mohammad Mohsin, 9 Shadley van Schalkwyk, 10 Nosthush Kenjige, 11 Ali Khan.

Seventeen-year-old Max Heingo is obviously a player for the future. But at the present moment, he's bowled three overs for 40 runs in this tournament and may be at risk of dropping down to the bench.

Namibia (possible): 1 Louren Steenkamp, 2 Jan Frylinck, 3 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 4 Gerhard Erasmus (capt), 5 JJ Smit, 6 Zane Green (wk), 7 Malan Kruger, 8 Ruben Trumpelmann, 9 Bernard Scholtz, 10 Ben Shikongo, 11 Max Heingo.

Pitch and conditions - More runs than turn

Chennai has offered batting-friendly conditions with fast bowlers getting bounce and carry. Spin hasn't really had a lot of say at the MA Chidambaram stadium. Even the day games haven't offered much turn. A 3pm game should eliminate the chances of dew affecting the result.

Stats and trivia - Monank 1000 watch

USA have played two T20Is against Namibia and won both of them.

Bernard Scholtz has 164 T20 wickets. The next best on the Namibia team is JJ Smit with 94

Monank Patel is 41 away of 1000 runs in T20Is. He is USA's highest scorer in the format ahead of former captain Stephen Taylor, who has 822 runs.

Quotes

"I think we are ahead. We had a great practice session under lights [on Friday] and in [Saturday's] game, we got used to the conditions. So overall, I think we are ahead of Namibia."

USA coach Pubudu Dassanayake believes his team has an edge playing in Chennai

"We've been to three T20 World Cups already. So we're sort of just building on that. My biggest job was just getting the guys in a good mental space. They're already playing good cricket. And then we just tweaked a couple of things, especially with our batting units, trying to spend more time at the crease, the options that they take."Namibia coach Craig Williams on his responsibilities.

Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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