Namibia crashed to a nine-wicket defeat against Northerns in their one day limited overs CSA Challenge match in Pretoria on Sunday. Namibia’s top order batsmen laid a solid foundation for a big score, but the middle order collapsed as the whole team was out for 199 off 38,2 of their 40 overs. Northerns easily reached Namibia’s total for the loss of only one wicket, with nine overs to spare.
Sent in to bat, Namibia’s openers Willem Groenewald and Wian van Vuuren got off to a quick start and put on 37 runs for the first wicket before Van Vuuren was out for 23 runs.
Gerhard Rudolph soon followed, bowled for 6, but Craig Williams revived Namibia’s hopes with a swashbuckling innings.
Williams smashed 57 runs off only 48 balls, which included two sixes and seven fours, and when he was dismissed, Namibia were well set at 133/3 off only 24 overs.
Groenewald however followed shortly afterwards, run out for 44, before Namibia’s middle order collapsed.
Raymond van Schoor was out for 11, Norbert Manyande scored 6, Bernard Scholtz 5, Tony Palladino 4 and Christi Viljoen a duck as Namibia collapsed to 9/177.
Ewald Steenkamp (17) and Louis Klazinga (13 not out) added 22 for the final wicket as Namibia reached 199 all out off 38,2 of their allotted 40 overs.
At five runs an over it seemed a competitive total, but Northerns made light work of the chase as Hendrik van der Dussen and Pieter Malan hit Namibia’s bowling attack to all corners of the field.
Malan was eventually out for 63 off Raymond van Schoor’s bowling, but that was Namibia’s only success as Van der Dussen steered them to a comfortable victory.
He batted superbly and was not out on 114 off only 84 balls as Northerns passed Namibia’s total with nine overs to spare.