Buoyed USA look for another memorable evening in Chennai

Qualification might be a bridge too far in a competitive group, but Monank Patel's USA will be floating with confidence after picking their first points of the T20 World Cup two days ago. As the city usually does, Chennai turned up in big numbers for a non-India game and witnessed US dismantle Netherlands for a comfortable victory. So what next for a side that lost its two previous fixtures to the two heavyweights of the group - India and Pakistan? Another two points and faint hopes of a miracle.

Beating Namibia will take them to four points, on level with India and Pakistan who play each other next. The loser of that fixture will have another game to play and make up the points, but USA's campaign can stay alive until that juncture if they can produce another good performance in such a short turnaround time to pocket the two points on Sunday.

Namibia meanwhile, reached Chennai in an interesting head space. They have two Ls from as many games and yet there must be confidence bubbling in their dressing room too. For long phases of the fixture in Delhi, they pushed India and will believe they have the wherewithal to take the game to the USA and succeed. Gerhard Erasmus has led by example in this World Cup cycle, and was phenomenal with the ball against India. He will have his boys training their sights on the first points of the tournament.

When: United States of America vs Namibia, February 15, 2026, 3 PM local time

Where: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

What to expect: A high-scoring evening? In the one 3 PM game at the venue so far, UAE posted an appreciable 173/6, but saw it chased comfortably by the New Zealand openers in just the 16th over.

Team News:

United States of America

Fresh from a massive win at this very venue, albeit in a 7 PM game, Monank Patel's side should be unchanged.

Probable XI: Monank Patel (c),Shayan Jahangir (wk), Saiteja Mukkamalla, Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Shubham Ranjane, Harmeet Singh, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan

Namibia

After the India game in Delhi, Namibia will silently believe they're good enough to taste success at least once before heading back home. They should field the same XI that did well in patches against India.

Probable XI:Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (c), JJ Smit, Malan Kruger, Zane Green (wk), Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo, Max Heingo

What they said:

"I think the last game we got a lot of confidence that we took these certain aspects that we did really well against, obviously an extremely strong Indian team. And then look, we're feeling good going into this game. We've prepared extremely well before the World Cup and we've had really good training sessions." - Namibia head coachCraig Williams

"It was a tough start to the World Cup for us, but we've learned a lot from those matches, and that's helped us." - USA captain Monank Patel after his team's win over Netherlands