Cricketers geared for WC onslaught

Namibia&rsquo;s quest to reach the 2015 Cricket World Cup will get underway on Wednesday when the country takes on the Netherlands. With that game thus quickly approaching, Namibia played their second warm-up match in New Zealand over the weekend. The team first took on Nepal on Friday before clashing with Scotland on Saturday. The two matches delivered varying degree of success with the Namibians beating Nepal by four runs, while they succumbed to Scotland after being bowled out. Against Nepal, Namibia batted first, scoring 231 for the loss of nine wickets. While Xander Pitchers (0 runs), Sarel Burger (two runs) and Craig Williams (six runs) were bowled out quite early, Stephan Baard and Nicolaas Scholtz steadied the ship. Baard scored an impressive 73 runs, while Scholtz had a total of 79 runs before being dismissed. Christi Viljoen contributed 37 runs with JP Kotze notching up 11 runs to become the only other player to reach double figures for Namibia. While Namibia failed to bowl their opponents out, they did restrict Nepal successfully from chasing the 231 total, with JJ Smit being the most effective bowler after taking three wickets. Louis Klazinga and Viljoen picked up two wickets each, while Nicolaas Scholtz had one wicket to his name. The win may have come as a shot in the arm for Namibia but that was undone on Saturday, as Scotland inflicted a defeat on their African opponents. This time Scotland went in to bat first, setting up a total of 275/7 in their allotted 50 overs. Klazinga again picked up two wickets, but Bernard Scholtz ultimately proved to be the most effective as he took three wickets, while Viljoen and Nicolaas each took one wicket. Namibia&rsquo;s run chase did not get off to a great start, as unlike the match against Nepal, Baard was out after scoring just one run. Pitchers, though, fared much better against the Scots by notching up 20 runs, while Burger contributed 23 runs. Gerrie Snyman proved to be the biggest threat for Namibia, managing 73 runs while JP Kotze came was just seven runs short from recording a half century. But in the end, Namibia was unable to reach the run total and could only manage 212 runs after all the batsmen were bowled out in the last over. As things stand, though, there are a lot of positives for Namibia to take from their two warm-up matches, with the team set to take on the Netherlands in their first match on Wednesday. Namibia&rsquo;s group stage fixtures Wednesday, January 15 Namibia v Netherlands Friday, January 17 Kenya v Namibia Tuesday, January 21 Namibia v Uganda Thursday, January 23 Namibia v Papua New Guinea Team Sarel Burger (c), Stephan Baard, JB Burger, Jason Davidson, Gerhard Erasmus, Shalako Groenewald, Louis Klazinga, JP Kotze, Xander Pitchers, Bernard Scholtz, Nicolaas Scholtz, JJ Smit, Christi Viljoen, LP van der Westhuizen and Craig Williams.

Cricketers geared for WC onslaught

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-08-06

Please login to leave a comment

Cricketers geared for WC onslaught

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-08-06

Please login to leave a comment

Login