Namibia take on wounded Scotland

NAMIBIA’S adventure at the T20 World Cup continues when they take on a wounded Scotland in their first Super 12 match in Abu Dhabi this afternoon.

Following their eight-wicket victory against Ireland on Friday, Namibia qualified for the Super 12 stage for the first time, and captain Gerhard Erasmus said they are looking forward to some massive occasions.

“It’s definitely a great experience coming onto the world stage and beating the Netherlands and Ireland, who in the past have had the better of us, and now progressing to playing against the world’s best teams. It’s going to be some massive occasions on the world stage in front of a global audience, playing against the likes of India, Pakistan and New Zealand,” he said.

“Obviously we know that we will have a great challenge ahead of us, but we will try and use the expectation and the energy of the game to up our tempo and level. If we can add 10% to everything in our squad and execute on the day, I think we can push these teams very deep,” he added.

Namibia, however, will first have to beat fellow associate-member nation Scotland, who were thrashed by 130 runs on Monday by Afghanistan who put on a spinning masterclass to dismiss them for a meagre 60, after scoring 190 for four.

That saw Afghanistan shooting to the top of the log in group 2 with two points and a brilliant net run rate of 6,50, while Pakistan are second after their equally impressive 10-wicket win against India on Sunday.

Following their Ireland victory, Namibia moved up three places on the world rankings to 16th, while Scotland are ranked 12th.

There is, however, not much to choose between the two sides with each winning a warm-up match against each other ahead of the World Cup earlier this month.

On 9 October, Namibia beat Scotland by five wickets after restricting Scotland to 137/8 and then scoring 138/5 with 14 balls in hand.

After some early wickets by Ruben Trumpelmann and JJ Smit, Scotland were struggling at 21/3, but Richie Berrington led their revival with great innings of 61 off 46 balls, while Craig Wallace added 23.

Namibia’s standout bowlers were Trumpelmann (2/23), David Wiese (2/38) and Jan Frylinck (2/24).

In Namibia’s innings, Zane Green was dismissed for a duck, but Stephan Baard and Craig Williams shared a 93-run stand to set them on course to victory.

Williams went on to score 50 off 37 balls, while Baard added 39 and Smit 20 as they comfortably reached the target.

Five days later, however, Scotland took the honours when they beat Namibia by 19 runs.

Scotland scored 203/7 with George Munsey scoring 67 off 41 balls (8×4, 3×6) and Matthew Cross 57 off 33 (7×4, 2×6), while Wiese was Namibia’s top bowler, taking 2/23.

In Namibia’s innings, Craig Williams gave them hope with a great knock of 80 off 51 balls (4×4, 3×6), while Zane Green added 34, Wiese 31 and Smit 26 not out, but they fell behind the required run rate, reaching 184/5 off their 20 overs.

Scotland will be determined to bounce back with a victory following their Afghanistan shocker, but Namibia will also be quietly confident of victory.

Following their qualification for the Super 12 stage they now have the added bonus of qualifying directly for next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, and Erasmus said they want to keep building on their legacy as a team.

“We’ve got a strong team culture that knows where we are going, so in this tournament we are looking to fight it out until the end. We’ve now also qualified for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year, so we are super excited to be able to go there as well and not having to go through another qualifying tournament,” he said.

“Things like that really inspire the young cricketers to continue playing the game after school and to take the game up as a profession in Namibia, so that’s the legacy our Eagles team want to leave – to inspire more youngsters to play the game and change more lives in that way.”