Last year in the T20 World Cup qualifiers, Sri Lanka had thrashed Namibia by seven wickets. The African associate side reversed the result this time by stunning the Lankans by 55 runs in the tournament opener on Sunday.

Arriving as Asia Cup champions, Sri Lanka surely had hoped to make a winning start in front of thousands of expectant supporters at Kardinia Park in Geelong. Instead, they were bowled out for 108, chasing 164 for victory.

All-rounder Jan Frylinck was Man of the Match, top-scoring with 44 from 28 balls. He then picked up the wickets of Dhananjaya de Silva (12) and captain Dasun Shanaka (29) with his left-arm pace. “I’m a little bit speechless at the moment, what we’ve just achieved is above what we thought we could do,” said Frylinck.

Frylinck and JJ Smit (31 not out off 16 balls) shared a 70-run partnership to help Namibia post a challenging 163/7in 20 overs.

Sri Lanka never recoveredin their chase after being reduced to 4/40 in the seventhover. Besides Frylinck, DavidWiese, Bernard Scholtz andBen Shikongo also picked uptwo wickets each.

Sri Lanka will be without the services of left-arm fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka in their upcoming matches as he has been ruled out of the tournament with a quadriceps muscle tear.

Namibia had surprised the cricket world by qualifying for the Super 12 round in last year’s tournament. “We want to kick on from here and make that Super 12,” a thrilled Gerhard Erasmus, the Namibiancaptain, told reporters. They are on course.

Brief scores: Namibia 163/7 in 20 overs (Jan Frylinck 44). Sri Lanka 108 in 19 overs (Frylinck 2/26). Namibia won by 55 runs

Written with inputs from Reuters