Another day, another last over win for the Netherlands in the T20 World Cup “first round”.

Namibia won the toss and chose to bat first in Geelong, but lost Divan la Cock to a second ball duck in the second over of their innings. Michael van Lingen hit 20 from 19 balls before he was out in the fifth over with Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton following for another second ball duck shortly afterwards.

From 32-3, Namibia mounted something of a recovery with Stephan Baard and Jan Frylinck putting on 31 followed by a 41 run partnership between Frylinck and skipper Gerhard Erasmus.

Runs were coming too slowly though and when Frylinck was out for 43, it was the 19th over and Namibia were only on 104. Erasmus was bowled by Bas de Leede later in the same over with the score on 105 and whilst David Wiese and JJ Smit managed to score 16 from the last eight balls to take the total to 121-6, the impetus came too late for a big total.

Namibia’s approach was odd. Keeping big hitters Wiese and Smit to the late overs is sensible strategy on the surface but the top order need to get out. Frylinck and Erasmus were scoring so slowly a tactical retirement for one or both would have likely made for a bigger total.

The Dutch reply proceeded in similar fashion to Sunday’s run chase against the UAE. Vikramjit Singh bossed the early overs with 39 from 31 balls before he fell in the ninth over having put on 59 with Max O’Dowd.

The runs had begun to dry up by the time O’Dowd was the next man out - for 35 in the 14th over - and his dismissal was the first of four for ten runs in the space of 17 balls. But Bas de Leede and Tim Pringle held on, running well to put pressure on the Namibian fielders.

Needing six from the final over, de Leede hit the first ball of it over mid-off. Erasmus chased it down but a desperation dive was in vain and the ball went over the boundary. The two remaining runs came from the third ball and the Dutch had won by five wickets.

Two close wins doesn’t do wonders for the Dutch net run rate though, and barring a surprise win for the UAE over Sri Lanka today, they’ll still likely have to beat the only full member side in the group on Thursday. Namibia will play the UAE last on that day, giving them something of an advantage as regards NRR if the Dutch lose to Sri Lanka. It’s been a tournament of surprises so far though, so who knows what might happen?