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Dubai: Namibia notched its third straight victory in the Twenty20 World Cup qualifier when it defeated United States by 17 runs on Thursday.
Opening batsman Raymond van Schoor made an unbeaten 79 as Namibia posted a challenging 177/4. The US made a match of it through Aditya Mishra's 53 before finishing on 160/7 in Dubai.
Namibia has defeated two dangerous sides in Group B - Ireland and Scotland - to the delight of its captain Craig Williams.
"Obviously it is a great position to be in," he said. "But it is a 12-day tournament ... we need to continue to work hard and take one match at a time."
Italy, Oman, Uganda and Kenya are the other opponents of Namibia before the top three from each of the two eight-team groups will go through to another qualifying stage for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, which begins Sept. 18.
The US was in the hunt until Christi Viljoen clean bowled Mishra in the 15th over with the total on 117. Mishra hit two fours and five sixes and looked threatening with a 40-run fourth wicket stand with Orlando Baker.
Ireland was taken to the limit by Italy before winning by two wickets at Abu Dhabi.
Ireland, which restricted Italy to 100/7, overhauled the target with two balls and two wickets to spare.
In Group A, Afghanistan also made it three out of three, defeating Denmark by 89 runs while Canada beat Hong Kong by eight wickets.
All-rounder Karim Sadiq smashed 91 off 60 balls in Afghanistan's healthy total of 172/5 before going on to take 4/12 with the ball as Denmark finished on 83/9.
"This is my best day in Twenty20 cricket," Sadiq said. "I love to entertain, so I love Twenty20 cricket. We are looking good and want to keep up the winning momentum."
Hong Kong could not repeat its Wednesday's performance when it beat Bermuda. After Canada restricted Hong Kong to 81/8, Hiral Patel (40) and Nitesh Kumar (22 not out) steered their team to 84/2 in just 14 overs.
