About this episode
In this episode of the show, Baldy and Stu look back at Day 12 of the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, which featured three games: India v Netherlands, Pakistan v Namibia and South Africa v UAE.
We start the show by discussing the tournament favourites, India, and their final pool match against the Netherlands. Abhishek Sharma fell early again, but starts from the rest of the top order were iced by a big contribution from Shivam Dube, who continues to be an unsung hero for India. The Netherlands batters played some quality shots during the chase, but it was Varun Chakravarthy who starred for India with the ball and helped seal a 12th consecutive T20 World Cup victory.
The second game of the day saw Pakistan taking on Namibia in Colombo, with Super 8 qualification on the line. But there was barely a nervous moment as a Sahibzada Farhan hundred powered Pakistan close to 200, and then the spinners took charge with the ball - Shadab Khan and Usman Tariq in particular among the wickets.
South Africa made four changes to their side, but still finished off their pool play with a comfortable win against the UAE. Corbin Bosch and George Linde were in the wickets as the Proteas put the squeeze on - bowling 53 dot balls across the innings as the UAE reached 122-6. That score was never going to be enough, and South Africa eased to the total without too much trouble.
To round out the show, the boys look ahead to Day 13, which sees the West Indies v Italy, Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe and Afghanistan & Canada finish up their 2026 T20 World Cup journey. There's also a brief recap of the Super 8 qualifiers as the next phase is nearly here.
We'll be back in your feed again tomorrow with the next instalment of our T20 World Cup coverage. Until then please take the time to give us a like, follow, share or subscribe on all our channels (@toporderpod on Twitter & Facebook, and @thetoporderpodcast on Instagram & YouTube) and a (5-Star!) review at your favourite podcast provider, or tell a friend to download. It really helps others find the show and is the best thing you can do to support us. You can also find all our written content, including our Hall of Fame series, at our website.
You can also dip back into our guest episodes - including conversations with Mike Hesson, Shane Bond and Mike Hussey, current players such as Matt Henry, Sophie Devine and Ish Sodhi, coaches Gary Stead, Jeetan Patel and Luke Wright, as well as Barry Richards, Frankie Mackay, Bharat Sundaresan and many more fascinating people from all across the cricketing world.
And if you'd like to reach out to us with feedback, questions or guest suggestions, get in touch at thetoporderpodcast@gmail.com. Thanks for listening.
0:00 Intro
0:55 India v Netherlands
12:30 Pakistan v Namibia
21:30 South Africa v UAE
26:55 Day 13 Preview Learn more about y
