NAMIBIA u19 suffered a two-wicket defeat against North West u19 in a practise match in Potchefstroom on Monday.
The match served as preparation for an u19 Tri-Nations Tournament between Namibia, South Africa and England which starts on Thursday.
Against North West, Namibia scored 242 all out off their 50 overs, and after rain interrupted play, North West reached a revised target of 196 runs for eight wickets off 31 overs to win the match by two wickets with nine balls remaining.
Nicol Loftie-Eaton was Namibia’s stand-out batsman and was unfortunate not to reach his century when he was dismissed for 98 off 125 balls, which included nine fours and one six.
He put on 80 runs for the first wicket with Henry Brink, but when Brink was dismissed for 35, it led to a middle order collapse, as the wickets started to tumble.
Captain Lohan Louwrens was dismissed for a duck, Erich von Mollendorf and Ramon Delport both scored three and when Henry Olivier was out for a golden duck Namibia were struggling at 191 for eight wickets.
A rapid 38 off 30 balls by Jan Izak de Villiers however saw Namibia reaching a competitive total of 242 runs.
In North West’s innings, Namibia got off to a fine start as Ben Shikongo and Dewald Nel picked up two early wickets to restrict North West to 13 for two wickets.
Their middle order batsmen however came to the rescue with Divan bester scoring 54 off 54 balls and Jerome Xaba 39 not out off 33 balls as North West clinched the victory.
Namibia open their campaign against England on Thursday.
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