NAMIBIA got off to a great start at the Africa C World T20 Qualifiers in Gaborone, Botswana after impressive victories in their opening three matches.
On Sunday they thrashed Swaziland by 10 wickets and Malawi by eight wickets, while they whipped Mozambique by 125 runs on Monday.
In their opening match on Sunday morning, they restricted Swaziland to 72 for six wickets off their 20 overs, and then easily reached 74 without loss off only 5,2 overs.
Zhivago Groenewald was Namibia’;s stand out bowler, with fantastic figures of five wickets for one run off four overs.
Swaziland got off to a steady start, scoring 18 runs off their first four overs before Groenewald struck, taking three wickets in four balls to reduce Swaziland to 18 for three wickets. They could not recover and with Zhivago picking up two more wickets could only manage 72 runs off their 20 overs.
Namibia’;s opening batsmen easily reached the target with Lohan Louwrens scoring 20 not out and Pikky Ya France 44 not out (six fours and two sixes).
Against Malawi, Namibia’;s bowlers ripped through the top order to leave Malawi staggering at 36 runs for seven wickets.
Malawi’;s lower order made a brief comeback, but they only managed to post a meagre 85 for nine wickets off their 20 overs.
Sami Sohail (23 not out) and Mia Patel (21) were Malawi’;s best batsmen.
Groenewald continued his great form, taking three wickets for six runs off four overs, while Tangeni Lungameni wasn’;t far behind, taking three wickets for nine runs off four overs.
Namibia lost two early wickets in their run chase when Lohan Louwrens was dismissed for two and Pikky Ya France for one, but Michau du Preez and Jan Frylinck took them to victory with an unbroken stand of 88 runs for the third wicket.
Du Preez reached 23 not out off 22 balls, but Frylinck was the chief destroyer, racing to 60 not out off only 29 balls, that included seven fours and two sixes, as Namibia reached 91 for two wickets off only 12 overs.
On Monday, Namibia scored another emphatic victory against Mozambique.
Batting first, Namibia lost the wickets of Pikky Ya France (15) and Michau du Preez (0) early on, but Lohan Louwrens and Jan Frylinck put Namibia in charge with a brilliant 157-run partnership at more than 13 runs per over.
Louwrens went on to reach his century off only 49 balls, which included 15 fours and three sixes, before he was dismissed for 100, while Frylinck remained unbeaten on 83 off 46 balls (13×4, 1×6).
Further down the order, Nicol Loftie-Eaton hit a rapid 13 off only four balls that included two sixes as Namibia reached a huge total of 29 for six wickets off their 20 overs.
Mozambique got off to a steady start, reaching 65 for three wickets, but a brilliant bowling spell by Tangeni Lungameni, which included a hattrick, saw them losing their last seven wickets for only four runs, as the whole side was skittled out for 104.
Lungameni had stand-out figures of five wickets for 16 runs, while Bernard Scholtz took two wickets for 24 runs and Nicol Loftie-Eaton two for 10 runs.
Namibia’;s next match is against Lesotho on Thursday morning.
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