Eagles finally win 

The Namibian Richelieu Eagles finally posted a victory in their Tri-Nations series when they convincingly beat the UAE by eight wickets at the United field yesterday. 

Namibia’s bowlers, led by JJ Smit, created the platform as they skittled UAE out for an under-par 190 – a target that was never going to be enough as Namibia reached it with ease, for the loss of two wickets, with more than 20 overs in hand. 

Smit got an early breakthrough in the UAE’s innings, dismissing Aryansh Sharma for a duck, and when Tangeni Lungameni dismissed Muhammad Waseem for one run, they were two down with only 15 runs on the board.

Alishan Sharafu (31) and Vishnu Sukumaran (30) revived their innings, but Namibia’s bowlers pegged them back with regular wickets, and only Asif Khan with 26 and Ali Naseer with 61 off 62 balls (7×4, 2×6) further down the order could make much of an impression, before the whole team was out for 190 off 43,2 overs. 

Smit was Namibia’s stand-out bowler with three wickets for 50 runs off 8,2 overs, while Tangeni Lungameni took 2/36 and Bernard Scholtz 2/26. 

Namibia’s innings got off to a great start as Michael van Lingen and JP Kotze shared an opening wicket stand of 98 off only 13,1 overs, before Van Lingen was bowled by Basil Hameed for 67 off 43 balls (12×4, 2×6). 

JP Kotze was dismissed for 40 off 53 balls (6×4), but Gerhard Erasmus and Zane Green continued the batting onslaught, sharing an unbroken third wicket partnership of 47-runs to take Namibia to a comfortable eight-wicket victory with 31 overs to spare. 

Erasmus remained not out on 59 off 46 balls (6×4, 3×6), while Green was not out on 21 off 21 balls (3×4). 

It was Namibia’s first victory in their home Tri-Nations series after losing their first encounter to the UAE and both matches against the USA.

The win put them fourth on the Cricket World Cup League 2 log on 10 points from 12 matches, but Scotland are just behind them on nine points from only seven matches. The UAE remain bottom of the log on two points, while the USA were the big winners of the series, winning all four their matches to move up to second position on the log on 12 points, just behind Canada on 14. 

With the 50-over series having come to an end, Namibia, USA and the UAE will now be involved in a T20 tri-nations series starting at the Wanderers field on Sunday when Namibia takes on the UAE at 14h00.