JJ Smit today turned in one of the best ever all-round performances in T20I history as Namibia secured a 2-1 win in their home series against Uganda.

Playing at the United Club ground in Windhoek, Smit came in with Namibia on the back foot at 59-4 in the tenth over. He showed why a common saying amongst those who follow Namibian cricket is “Smit can hit” by clubbing 71 from just 35 balls before he was out in the penultimate over of the Namibian innings.

He’d taken the home side’s total to 164-6, and another 21 were scored from the last ten balls as Namibia finished on 185-7.

He then made an almost immediate impact with the ball, trapping Arnold Otwani lbw from the third ball of the Ugandan reply. He also had Kenneth Waiswa out for a duck in the third over before he was taken out of the attack.

Uganda began to fall behind the rate with only opener Simon Sseazi offering resistance. Smit came back on to bowl his third over in the 17th of the Ugandan innings. He had Frank Akankwasa caught from the second ball of the over, ended Simon Sseazi’s knock of 58 from the fourth, then bowled Frank Nsubuga and had Juma Miyagi lbw to end the over with a hat-trick.

At this point he had 6-7 and the joint second best bowling in men’s T20I cricket. One more wicket would have given him the first men’s seven wicket hall in the format but he couldn’t take a wicket in the penultimate over of the match, finishing with 6-10, the fifth best bowling in men’s T20I history.

Uganda were bowled out for 133 and lost by 52 runs. There are no prizes for guessing who the player of the match was.

The series had begun on Friday with Uganda scoring 127-5, which Namibia chased down in 18.4 overs to win by 8 wickets, Stephan Baard top scoring with an unbeaten 52.

In yesterday’s second game, Gerhard Erasmus scored an unbeaten 100 from just 47 balls to help the hosts reach 177-4 from their 20 overs. Surprisingly given Namibia’s T20 World Cup exploits, Uganda managed to level the series, winning by 7 wickets with one ball to spare, thanks to a superb unbroken 118 from Riazat Ali Shah and Dinesh Nakrani. Shah scored 57 but Nakrani was the star with 77 from 39 balls.

The decider today went the way of Namibia today though thanks to an all-round performance for the ages by JJ Smit.