On Saturday, Namibia and England faced off in a pivotal Group A fixture in the 2024 T20 World Cup at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. The second innings saw an interesting tactic employed as Namibian opener Nikolaas Davin was retired out.
The match got underway two and a half hours after the scheduled start time of 1:30pm, thanks to persistent rain. As a result, the overs were reduced to 11-a-side. Namibia won the toss and chose to field first, removing both England openers within the first three overs. However, a solid partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook helped lift England to 122-5 in 10 overs, following another rain interruption towards the end of the innings.
Namibia's target was revised upwards to 126, via the DLS method. They were given a helping hand off the very first delivery as Reece Topley overstepped, but Michael van Lingen could not take advantage of the resulting free hit. They scored 18 off their three Powerplay overs, and could only to get to 44 in six overs, before Namibia made the call to retire Nikolaas Davin for 18 off 16 deliveries. He was replaced at the crease by David Wiese.
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Retiring out is a rare sight in cricket, although it has been used more frequently by teams of late, especially in the T20 format. When the number of available deliveries is low, one batter facing many of them but not scoring quickly can end up harming the team, so when used, it is often done so in order for the batting team to send a more explosive player in.
David Wiese, playing his final game for Namibia, came in and was fairly effective, hitting two fours and two sixes to score 27 off 12 balls. However, the target was always out of reach for Namibia after their slow start, and they finished on 84-3, 41 runs short. This dismissal marked just the seventh occasion in men's international cricket of a batter retiring out.
The result kept England alive in the tournament. They now need Australia to beat Scotland to qualify for the Super Eights stage.
Batters retiring out in men's international cricket
| Player | Team | Opposition | Format | Runs | Balls Faced | Date |
| Marvan Atapattu | Sri Lanka | Bangladesh | Test | 201 | 259 | September 6, 2001 |
| Mahela Jayawardene | Sri Lanka | Bangladesh | Test | 150 | 115 | September 6, 2001 |
| Sonam Tobgay | Bhutan | Maldives | T20I | 24 | 35 | December 7, 2019 |
| Hevit Jackson | France | Czech Republic | T20I | 38 | 43 | July 24, 2022 |
| Hevit Jackson | France | Estonia | T20I | 50 | 39 | July 30, 2022 |
| Mustapha Suwareh | Gambia | Ghana | T20I | 3 | 5 | December 8, 2022 |
| Nikolaas Davin | Namibia | England | T20I | 18 | 16 | June 15, 2024 |
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