Namibia Cricket Year Review

NAMIBIA’S national cricket team reached new heights in the South African CSA competition over the past year, but also experienced disappointment in the ICC World Cricket League division 2 competition.

In the South African CSA Three Day Cup series, Namibia topped the group standings to reach the final for the first time, but in the ICC World Cricket League division 2 tournament which they hosted in February, Namibia could only finish fourth and failed to go through to the final world cup qualifier.

In the South African CSA Three Day Cup competition, Namibia finished on top of Pool B after winning five, drawing three and losing two of its 10 pool matches.

In a great start to the tournament they won their first five matches in a row after beating Northern Cape by seven wickets, Easterns by four wickets, Boland by an innings and 54 runs, Gauteng by 164 runs and Eastern Province by 108 runs.

Namibia had built up a huge lead on the log and despite losing three and drawing two of their final four matches, they still managed to finish on top of the log to qualify for the final.

KwaZulu-Natal however dominated the final to win by an innings and 25 runs. KwaZulu-Natal declared their first innings at 334 for four wickets, and then dismissed Namibia for 132 in their first innings and 177 in their second to complete an easy victory.

Craig Williams was Namibia’s top batsman in the competition, scoring 687 runs at an average of 52,84, while Bernard Scholtz was Namibia’s top bowler, taking 35 wickets at an average of 20,31.

In the CSA provincial one-day challenge Namibia failed to reach the final, but fared well during the group stages, winning six and losing four matches.

The biggest disappointment of the year was undoubtedly Namibia’s failure to reach the final world cup qualifier in Zimbabwe, after they finished fourth at the World Cricket League division 2 tournament in Windhoek on 15 February.

With the top two teams qualifying for Zimbabwe, Namibia were still in with a chance when they took on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their final pool match on 14 February, but they lost that encounter by 19 runs, and eventually finished fourth after losing the third place play-off to Canada by 49 runs.

Sent in to bat, UAE scored 247 for six wickets off their 50 overs, while Namibia fell short by 19 runs, reaching 228 all out with two balls to spare.

JJ Smit was Namibia’s best bowler, taking three wickets for 57 runs off 10 overs, while Gerhard Erasmus with 58 off 63 balls and Craig Williams with 54 were Namibia’s top batsmen.

Namibia’s tournament got off to a losing start when they went down by one wicket to Nepal on 8 February.

Two days later Namibia beat Oman by two wickets with two balls to spare following a fine 63 not out by Gerhard Erasmus. On 13 February Namibia comfortably beat Kenya by eight wickets after restricting Kenya to 110, and then reaching the target for the loss of only two wickets.

After their defeat to UAE on 14 February, Namibia lost to Canada by 49 runs in the third place play-off on 15 February.

Canada scored 247/4 off their 50 overs, while Namibia were all out for 198, with LP van der Westhuizen scoring 53 and Gerhard Erasmus 42.

Namibia remain on track in the ICC T20 qualifiers for the 2020 world cup, although they lost lost their first-ever match to Botswana at the Africa Region C Qualifier in Gaborone on 3 November.

Botswana beat Namibia by three wickets in a thrilling match which saw them finish on top of the log on 12 points, while Namibia finished second on 10 points.

Namibia had earlier beaten Lesotho, St Helena, Mozambique, Malawi and Swaziland. Namibia and Botswana will now progress to the next round of qualifiers in 2019.

Namibia’s u19 team however struggled at the u19 cricket world cup in New Zealand in January, finishing 14th overall out of 16 nations.

Namibia only managed to win one of its five matches, when it beat Kenya by eight wickets on 27 January, with Lohan Louwrens scoring 114 runs off 76 balls, while Petrus Burger took five wickets for 24 runs.

Namibia lost their other matches to Bangladesh by 87 runs, to England by eight wickets, to Canada by four wickets, to Zimbabwe by seven wickets, and to 102 runs to Ireland.

At the beginning of October, Cricket Namibia dropped a bombshell when it announced that it had withdrawn from the Sunfoil 3-Day Cup and the provincial one-day challenge for the 2018/19 season.

It stated that due to Namibia’s geographic location and the travelling times required, it had become increasingly prohibitive with the increase in travel costs year on year.

CN CEO Peter Forster, however, said it was not such a big setback and that it would provide new opportunities for CN.

“I don’t think that it’s a huge setback and we rather see it as providing new opportunities. Besides, the CSA competitions are not as strong as they used to be,” he said.