Namibia lose third consecutive match

NAMIBIA slumped to their third consecutive defeat at the u19 Cricket World Cup when Canada beat them by four wickets in Lincoln, New Zealand on Thursday.

Namibia won the toss and elected to bat but the team could only muster 193 all out off their 50 overs. That was never going to be enough and Canada easily reached the total for the loss of six wickets with eight overs to spare.

All of Namibia’s top order batsmen got amongst the runs but none of them went on to build a big score.

Lohan Louwrens and Jurgen Linde put on 53 for the first wicket, before Linde was out for 25, while Louwrens followed for a top score of 38.

Shaun Fouche added 21, Eben van Wyk 32 and Erich von Mollendorff 30 as they reached 161 for five wickets off 36 overs.

Namibia’s lower order, however, folded quickly as they only added 32 runs for the last five wickets, with Nicol Loftie-Eaton scoring 13 and Gerhard Lottering 12 not out.

Akash Gill was Canada’s best bowler, taking four wickets for 43 runs off eight overs.

Namibia made an early breakthrough in Canada’s innings when leg spinner Petrus Burger dismissed Pranav Sharma (8) and Randhir Sandhu (7) cheaply, but Gill and Canada captain Arslan Khan rebuilt their innings with a century partnership.

Gill was eventually dismissed off Gerhard Lottering’s bowling for 52, but Kevin Singh joined Khan to put Canada in charge with a 52-run partnership.

Jan Izak de Villiers dismissed Khan for 72 which included eight fours, while Singh remained not out on 50, and although Canada lost two late wickets, they comfortably reached 197/6 off only 42 overs.

It was Namibia’s last group match and after earlier defeats to England and Bangladesh they have finished bottom of Group C with zero points.