Namibia coach Dougie Brown voiced pride at his side's performance despite losing to England by 55 runs.
Set a daunting target of 273 to win, they were in the hunt while first Jan-Berry Burger and then Danie Keulder were at the crease.
Burger scored a superb 85 and Keulder made 46 but wickets fell regularly thereafter, although Namibia were able to deny England the satisfaction of bowling them out.
"We came out here to try and get into the game in the first instance and I thought after 30 overs of us batting, we were totally in there.
"You could see the panic starting to set in a little bit for the England players out in the field.
"It was almost like they didn't expect anything like that to happen and credit to JB Burger and Danie Keulder for getting us into that position.
"I think England were too strong for us on the day overall, but I thought it was a fantastic effort by everyone," he said.
Brown admitted that he had used his knowledge of the England players gained in county cricket with Warwickshire to help focus on some weaknesses among the England batsmen.
"I tried to put together a couple of plans for the guys and it might have looked like Doc (Rudi van Vuuren) pulled a couple of short balls and got a couple of wickets, but that was part of the plan.
"It helps knowing the players but some days it works, some days it doesn't."
Brown played nine one-day games for England in 1997-98
Brown said he believed some of the England players were still feeling the effects of an exhausting Ashes tour to Australia which only finished late last month.
"England have been on the road since October - there must be some pretty tired legs in that dressing room.
"Our guys are just relishing every single moment of the World Cup - every thing it throws at them."