The Namibian Eagles’ West Indian adventure got off to a winning start when they beat Uganda by five wickets in their first warm-up match yesterday, before the T20 World Cup gets underway this weekend.
Playing at the Brian Lara Stadium at Torouba the Eagles gave a solid performance as they restricted Uganda to 134/8 before reaching the target for the loss of five wickets and seven balls to spare.
After winning the toss, captain Gerhard Erasmus sent Uganda in to bat and the East Africans were soon in trouble. Spinner Bernard Scholtz clean-bowled Ronak Patel for 8, while four balls later, Ben Shikongo bowled Alpesh Ramjani for one, to leave Uganda struggling at 21 for two wickets.
Ugandan captain Roger Mukasa and Robinson Obuya, however, started a determined fightback, putting on 34 runs for the third wicket, before Erasmus dismissed Mukasa for 38.
Riazat Ali Shah added 10 runs, but Mukasa ran out of partners and eventually finished on 51 not out which came off 41 balls (6×4, 1×6).
For Namibia, Scholtz (2/16) and Erasmus (2/24) both took two wickets, while Shikongo and Dylan Leicher took one each.
In reply, Namibia lost Michael van Lingen early on, dismissed by Cosmas Kyewuta for 4, but Niko Davin and JP Kotze put Namibia in charge with a 85-run partnership.
Spinner Henry Ssenyondo got the breakthrough for Uganda, dismissing Kotze for 29 off 31 balls (3×4,1×6), while Ramjani dismissed Davin for a top score of 54 which came off 34 balls (3×4, 5×6).
That put them on the road to victory, and JJ Smit with 21 not out and Jan Frylinck with 9 not out took Namibia to the winning target with seven balls in hand.
It was a fine start for Namibia, but they will face much tougher opposition in their next warm-up match against Australia at Port of Spain today. Australia recently won the 50-over Cricket World Cup and although they have only won the T20 World Cup once, in 2021, they are always among the favourites.
Namibia and Australia have also been drawn in the same group for the T20 World Cup so they will meet again, on 11 June at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
Namibia’s world cup campaign gets underway against Oman on Sunday at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados.
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