Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Monank Patel set up USA's comfortable victory

United States of America wrapped up their T20 World Cup group stage campaign with a second victory, as fifties from Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Monank Patel laid the platform for the 31-run win against Namibia. With that, Gerhard Erasmus's Namibia became the third team - after Oman and Nepal, to officially get knocked out of the tournament. USA are also on the brink despite this win. Their only miraculous route to the Super 8s is complex and far-fetched - they need one of India or Pakistan to stay on four points and fall behind them on NRR.

Monank Patel chose to take the first stab at the pristine batting conditions in the afternoon fixture in Chennai, earned a reprieve in the first over and went on to set the tone in the PowerPlay. He laid into JJ Smit in the sixth over for a 19-run over, contributing 41 off 21 in USA's PowerPlay tally of 65/0. Namibia once again turned to spin for revival, and leggie Willem Myburgh provided it in the seventh over with the wicket of Shayan Jehangir. Monank, who got to a 27-ball half-century, holed out against the same bowler in the 11th over. USA endured a slow down in this period but Monank's exit brought Sanjay Krishnamurthi to the middle, who gave his side another swift lift. Gerhard Erasmus was once again his team's man with the golden arm, taking out Saiteja Mukkamalla in his first over.

The little pulling back that Namibia had fashioned after a sloppy start was once again sullied, through a three-over manic phase where Sanjay Krishnamurthi and Milind Kumar went after Bernard Scholtz, JJ Smit and Ruben Trumplemann. They took 20 off the left-arm spinner, hit Smit for 13 and then collected 26 off Trumpelmann, during which Krishnamurthi reached a 23-ball half-century. Erasmus bowled two tough overs at the death, but USA finished on 199/4

Like they did against India, Namibia meant business with the bat in the PowerPlay. Louren Steenkamp and Jan Frylinck hit 20 off Ali Khan in the fifth over. But Shadley van Schalkwyk picked his seventh PowerPlay wicket of the World Cup when Frylinck tamely offered a return catch to the bowler. From 57/1 in 6 overs, Namibia moved along well through Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton and Steenkamp as they kept up with the asking rate to take the team to 97/1 at the halfway stage. But like in the India game, the downfall began in this middle phase after Saurabh Netravalkar broke the second-wicket partnership with the wicket of Loftie-Eaton.

Steenkamp got a fifty but fell in the same over that derailed Namibia further. They went to the death overs needing 75 off 30 balls. They could only get a little more than half that tally as Netravalkar and Ali Khan closed out the game.

Brief Scores: United States of America 199/4 in 20 overs (Sanjay Krishnamurthi 68*, Monank Patel 52; Willem Myburgh 2-22, Gerhard Erasmus 2-27) beat Namibia 168/6 in 20 overs (Louren Steenkamp 58; Shadley van Schalkwyk 2-30, Shubham Ranjane 1-6) by 31 runs