Zimbabwe condemn junior Eagles to bottom four

Cricket
Namibia's youngsters concluded their Group C matches winless and were eliminated from Super 6 contention.
Tielman Van Lill
Namibia’s Walvis Bay Salt Eagles (146 for eight in 50 overs) on Saturday lost their third and final match in Group C by eight wickets against Zimbabwe (147/2 in 35.5) at the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in Kimberley, South Africa.

While being knocked out of Super Six contention, Namibia will still have two matches remaining to determine their final standing among the bottom four (positions 13 to 16).

Namibia will face Scotland on Thursday at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, a day after Afghanistan and USA will meet at the same venue.

On Saturday, the deficiencies in the Namibian batting skills were evident as they failed to rotate the strike while Zimbabwe sent down more than 220 dot balls.

The Namibians also could not sustain the high bowling and fielding standards seen during their previous Group C two matches against Australia and Sri Lanka.

With a mediocre and lukewarm bowling attack, the junior Eagles could not contain the Zimbabwe batters. Too many wides and the odd misfield gave Namibia little chance of taking early wickets and applying pressure while defending a small total.

Namibia, after being sent in to bat first, for the first time in the tournament batted out their full 50 overs, reaching their highest total of 146 for eight wickets.

Number nine batsman Hanro Badenhorst played a very mature innings of 39 not out off 76 balls, with two fours and two sixes, to extend Namibia’s total beyond just the 100-mark.

After the Namibian top-order had failed to build significant partnerships, Badenhorst walked in on 94/7 after 33 overs.

He took his time to get off the mark and scored only four off 34 balls, but later cut loose to end on 39 not out – the highest individual batting total by a Namibian so far in this tournament.

Earlier, Gerhard Janse van Rensburg (23 off 44) and Alexander Volschenk (22 off 37) contributed valuable runs.

However, Zimbabwe lost only two wickets on their way to a convincing victory to maintain their perfect record against Namibia at Under 19 World Cups since 2002.

Panashe Taruvinga batted throughout the Zimbabwe innings to finish on 59 not out off 115 balls, but it was his team mate Newman Nyamhuri who was named player of the match for his bowling figures of four for 21 runs.

Nyamhuri and Ryan Simbi (3/20 in 10) were deadly on the attack and often unplayable under the conditions.

England-based seam-bowling prospect Jack Brassell (1/24 in 7) and Gerhard Janse van Rensburg (1/30 in 9) were the pick of the Namibian bowlers.

Namibia conceded 33 extras and Zimbabwe 20. The winning team smashed 16 fours, while Namibia got nine fours and three sixes over the boundary rope.

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Republikein 2024-11-23

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