Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya sent Namibia on a leather hunt as India piled up 209/9 in their T20 World Cup clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday.
Sanju Samson began India's innings with a brisk cameo but failed to kick on. After blasting 22 off eight deliveries, Samson flicked a Ben Shikongo delivery to deep midwicket in the second over.
Ishan and Tilak Varma then added 79 for the second wicket, with the former doing the bulk of the scoring.
Ishan was especially severe on left-arm medium pacer JJ Smit, smashing him for 28 in an over. The over started with a dot ball before Ishan went berserk, hitting four successive sixes and a four to reach his fifty off 20 balls.
In all, he hit six fours and five sixes before holing out to Shikongo at deep midwicket off the first ball of leg spinner Gerhard Erasmus' spell. He made 61 off just 24 balls.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who starred for India in their win over the USA, fell cheaply this time, being stumped by Zane Green off left arm spinner Bernard Scholtz for 12 off 13 balls to leave India at 120/3 in the 11th over.
Erasmus then struck again, removing Varma who was caught by Smit at long-off for 25 off 21 balls.
Pandya and Shivam Dube then added 81 for the fifth wicket to take India past 200. But, with the score at 205/4 in 18.1 overs, India suffered a mini collapse, losing five wickets in the last 11 balls, with just four runs added.
It was Erasmus who made the breakthrough once more, having Pandya caught on the backward square leg boundary for 52 off 28 balls.
Dube was run out next ball for 23 and Axar was castled for a golden duck off the last ball of the over as Erasmus finished with the eye-catching figures of 4/20 in his four overs.
Earlier, Namibia had won the toss and put India in to bat. Suryakumar was unfazed by the outcome of the toss, saying he was planning to bat first anyway.
Jasprit Bumrah who missed the opening game against the USA returns in place of Mohammed Siraj.
Abhishek Sharma who was admitted to hospital with a stomach illness in the run-up to the game misses out, with Samson coming in his place.
The teams:
India: Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy
Namibia: Louren Steenkamp, Jan Frylinck, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Ruben Trumpelmann, Malan Kruger, Bernard Scholtz, Ben Shikongo, Max Heingo