India cruise as Kohli's T20 reign ends

Virat Kohli has ended his T20I captaincy on a winning note, with India beating Namibia by nine wickets in the Twenty20 World Cup.

However, with the team already eliminated following wins for New Zealand and Pakistan on Sunday, Monday's match was a dead rubber. 

Kohli's bid to lead the inaugural champions to their second Twenty20 World Cup title was effectively over after the comprehensive defeats by those teams, who are the semi-final qualifiers from that group. 

Conversely, Namibia return home happy despite another thrashing, having achieved more than they had anticipated.

Spin duo Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin split six wickets to restrict the World Cup debutants to 8-132 after being inserted at the Dubai International Stadium.

Rohit Sharma (56) and KL Rahul (54 not out) smashed brisk fifties as India prevailed in the 16th over of their run chase.

"It's been an honour, but things have to be seen in the right perspective," Kohli said after the consolation win.

"I thought this was the right time for me to manage my workload.

"It's been six, seven years of intense cricket. Every time you take the field, it takes a lot out of you.

"We were not brave enough in the first two games, we suffered because of that. We knew that afterwards it would be complicated for us to go through."

It was also the last match for head coach Ravi Shastri, who will be succeeded by former Test stalwart Rahul Dravid.

"When I took this job, I said in my mind that I want to make a difference. And I think I have," Shastri said before the match.

"I think in Rahul Dravid they've got a guy who has inherited a great team and with his stature and experience, it can only raise the bar."

Namibia qualified for the Super 12s for the first time after progressing from the first stage, then defeated Scotland to cap an impressive debut at this level despite several heavy defeats.

Captain Gerhard Erasmus said: "Quick turnarounds mean we haven't been able to soak in the experience. Only once we get back (home), we'll realise we played at an awesome level of cricket and we managed to compete, so if we can keep playing in tournaments like this cricket can only grow.

"We can take a lot of positives individually and as a team we'll take this experience as a whole. Hopefully this lays the foundations for us to take the next step." 

2021 Men's T20 World Cup

Semi-finals

Nov 10: England v New Zealand, Abu Dhabi (6pm local, 1am Nov 11 AEDT)

Nov 11: Pakistan v Australia, Dubai (6pm local, 1am Nov 12 AEDT)

Final

Nov 14: TBC v TBC, Dubai (6pm local, 1am Nov 15 AEDT)

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports.

Click here for the full 2021 ICC T20 World Cup schedule

Click here for the full squads for all 16 teams

How the teams are grouped

Round 1

Group A: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Namibia

Group B: Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Oman

Super 12s

Group 1: England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland, Namibia