Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit, Ben Shikongo: Meet Namibia heroes after their historic win over SL at T20 World Cup

In what was an epic opening game of the T20 World Cup 2022 at Geelong, Namibia beat Sri Lanka to cause a major upset. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bowl first in the opener as they wanted to see  how the conditions and the pitch behaves but despite the bad start with the bat, Namibians put on 163/7 in 20 overs. Chasing the target, SL were bowled out for 108 in 19 overs, losing the match 55 runs. This is not just a big upset but in the larger scheme of things, the big margin of win has helped Namibia's case stronger for qualification to the next round. It was all thanks to three heroes from Namibia. Look below to read more on them.     

An iconic win to mark the beginning of ICC Men's #T20WorldCup 2022 _

Watch the complete highlights _ https://t.co/g8WCpiCQdz#SLvNAM pic.twitter.com/8ZLQQhE84h — ICC (@ICC) October 16, 2022

Jan Frylinck: His full name is Jan Nicolaas Frylinck. He picked up two big wickets of Dhananjaya de Silva and Dasun Shanaka and scored important 44 runs off 28 balls that included 4 boundaries as well coming in to bat No 7. He was adjudged as the Player of the Match. 

Frylinck was born in Bellville, Western Cape, which means he is a South African by origin. He has featured in 23 ODIs and 36 T20Is for Namibia, picking 34 and 53 wickets respectively. He has also scored 399 and 184 runs in ODIs and T20Is respectively.

He debuted in 2019 vs Oman in an ODI and played his first T20I in May 2019 vs PNG.

A day Namibia won't forget anytime soon _#T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/KCdzxUORsb

— ICC (@ICC) October 16, 2022

JJ Smit: He was born in keetmanshoop in Namibia on November 10 in 1995. He made his debut in international cricket in 2019 in the same match as Frylinck. He made his T20I debut vs Afghanistan in August of 2019 vs Ghana. 

Smit played beautifully for his 31 off 16 balls while batting at No 9. And then picked up 1 wicket from his 3 overs while giving away just 16 runs. 

2 wickets in 2 balls!

We can reveal that this wicket from Ben Shikongo is one of the moments that could be featured in your @0xFanCraze Crictos of the Game packs from Namibia vs Sri Lanka!

Grab your pack for from https://t.co/zFNKfahY1M to own iconic moments from every game. pic.twitter.com/fHPogzpBFY — ICC (@ICC) October 16, 2022

Ben Shikongo: He started to trend on social media as soon as he picked up two wickets in two balls to break the back of Sri Lankan batting lineup in the opening match of the T20 World Cup 2022. The casualties were Pathum Nissanka and Danushka Gunathilaka. These wickets shocked the Lankans and pushed them further back in the chase of 163. 

Shikongo is one of the youngest members in the Namibian team. He was born on May 8 in 2000 and has represented his nation in 3 ODIs and 20 T20Is so far. In 2- T20Is, he has scalped 16 wicketss while he has 3 ODI wickets to his name. 

He made his debut in an T20I clash vs Bostwana on August 19, 2019. He played his first ODI match vs UAE on January 6 in 2020.