Sri Lanka has made a disastrous start to its men's T20 World Cup campaign, with the former champions crashing to a 55-run loss against Namibia in Geelong.
Arriving in Australia as surprise Asia Cup winners, Sri Lanka had hoped to make an early statement against the African associate side at a sun-bathed Kardinia Park.
But the 2014 champions were bowled out for 108 after chasing 164 for victory, as Namibia soaked up its finest international win.
Sri Lanka can afford no slip-ups in its following qualifying matches against United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and the Netherlands on Thursday.
Namibia all-rounder Jan Frylinck was judged player-of-the-match, top-scoring with 44 from 28 balls as his side put on a respectable total on a drop-in wicket.
Frylinck then picked up the wickets of Dhananjaya de Silva (12) and captain Dasun Shanaka (29) with his left-arm pace, claiming the figures of 2-26.
"I'm a little bit speechless at the moment, what we've just achieved is above what we thought we could do," Frylinck said.
"Now I'm just very excited at this point in time.
"Myself and JJ (Smit) got us to a competitive total and the bowlers just stepped up and it was unbelievable."
Sri Lanka crashed to 3-21 and its chase was all but over when Shanaka fell for 29, his team still 76 runs short with three wickets in hand.
"I think the surface played really well but the execution was not there when it comes to their bowling," Shanaka said.
"Once we lost three wickets in the powerplay, we were out of the game … we've got a good team but it's all about the process.
"When we're chasing 160 we need [the top order] to kick in. And the bowlers need to hit the right areas."
Namibia reached the Super 12s stage at the last World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
With a heavy South African flavour in their coaching ranks, Namibia's squad have been the big improvers among the second-tier sides and will back themselves to make another trip to the Super 12s.
"Incredible journey. Last year was a special experience for us and we've topped that with a great win," Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus said.
"A historic day for us but we want to kick on from here and make that Super 12."
Reuters
