Eagles off to winning start

The Namibian Richelieu Eagles got off to a winning start in their five-match T20 international series against Zimbabwe, with a comprehensive seven-wicket victory in their first match on Tuesday. 

Namibia restricted Zimbabwe to 121 for nine wickets off their 20 overs, and with Niko Davin in sparkling form, reached the winning target for the loss of three wickets, with 38 balls to spare. 

Davin led the way with a fine innings of 80 not out, which came off only 44 balls and included eight fours and four sixes. 

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Zimbabwe were immediately in trouble when Ben Shikongo dismissed Nick Welch caught behind with the first ball of the innings, and when Craig Ervine was also dismissed for a duck by Gerhard Erasmus, they had crashed to two wickets down without a run on the board. 

Namibia’s bowlers maintained the pressure with Tangeni Lungameni dismissing Ryan Burl for 14, and when JJ Smit dismissed Innocent Kaia for four, they were struggling at 22/4.

Sikandar Raza and Wesley Madhevere revived the innings with a 39-run partnership, but Nicol Loftie-Eaton broke the partnership when he dismissed Madhevere for 22. 

Raza went on to score 39 off 35 balls (4×4, 1×6), while Luke Jongwe added 22 not out, but the wickets continued to fall, as they could only reach 121/9 off their 20 overs. 

Erasmus was Namibia’s best bowler, taking three wickets for 15 runs, while their six other bowlers each picked up a wicket. 

In reply, Namibia lost Michael van Lingen early on when he was bowled by Richard Ngarava for five, but Davin took the fight to Zimbabwe with a belligerent innings. 

He dominated a 46-run partnership with Erasmus, who only contributed eight runs before he was dismissed by Ngarava, and then upped the tempo as he guided Namibia to victory. 

Jan Frylinck scored 11, and JP Kotze 11 not out, but Davin was the star of the show as he went on to score 80 not out, sealing their victory with a six off Raza in the 14th over. 

It was an emphatic victory for Namibia, which captain Erasmus said built a good foundation for the rest of the series. 

“I thought we laid a very good foundation there in the power play; we threw the first punches in this series and hopefully that’s a good foundation to continue building on, to keep on raising the levels throughout the series,” he said. 

Regarding his frequent bowling changes at the start of the Zimbabwe innings, he said it was part of a plan to remain unpredictable. 

“Obviously, we want to try and stay unpredicatable and you wanted impact from a new bowler, so I guess that’s some of the thoughts that went into that, but everyone who got the chance, put the ball in the right areas today.”

“We had good energy in the field, and then obviously some good striking from Nico, and a few other guys contributed nicely throughout the innings, but there’s still a lot of cricket to play in this series. There’s four more games to go and we are looking at more of our guys chipping in and putting their hands up for a place in the team,” he added. 

Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine said Namibia out them under pressure from the start. 

“Namibia put us under pressure nice and early with the ball and we just struggled to adapt to the wicket to begin with, but they kept the pressure on and credit to them. 

“Obviously we’ve got to learn quickly, because we’ve got to come back tomorrow and do this again. Looking at the wicket today it looks like you can’t just come in and get going straight from ball one, obviously. Niko batted extremely well, but it’s a wicket that you’ve got to graft on to build your innings, so we will have to formulate another plan and try and put in a better performance tomorrow,” he added. 

On Wednesday Zimbabwe levelled the series at 1-1 after a great innings by Sikandar Raza, who scored 82 not out off 35 balls (3×4, 9×6). 

Namibia posted an impressive 198/3, with Michael van Lingen scoring 67 and Niko Davin 60, but Zimbabwe reached 200/5, with Nick Welch also adding 25, Innocent Kaia 37 and Wessly Madhevere 23.