Namibia beat Tanzania by five wickets on Wednesday to remain the only team that is unbeaten after four matches in the ICC Africa Under 19 World Cup qualifiers that are currently taking place in Windhoek.
Tanzania won the toss and elected to bat first and managed to put up a total of 146 all out. Zhivago Groenewald of Namibia got 3/22 in nine overs. Namibia followed and managed to get to 147/5 after 42 overs. Gerhard Lotter got 31 runs out of 43 runs for Namibia.
The Namibian coach, Johan Rudolph, was very happy with the fact that Namibia was the only unbeaten team in the qualifier thus far.
“I am happy with the fact we still have not lost a game thus far. We set our sights on going unbeaten, and this is going to make things easier in the next matches,” Rudolph said.
“We don’t want to have to rely on other teams losing, we just want too get the maximum points.”
In another match Kenya lost to Uganda by 4 runs, Ifran Karim had 33 runs after facing 69 balls before he was bowled. Kenya set Uganda an easy target after they managed to get 155/9 after 50 overs. Henry Senyondo of Uganda had an impressive 3/18 after 10 overs.
Senyondo managed to get 42 runs for Uganda and Faruk Ochimi had 30 after facing 68 balls. Duncan Allan got three wickets for 22 runs after 10 overs for Kenya, but Uganda finished 159/5 to win the match in 47.3 overs.
Botswana recorded their second win when they beat Zambia by three wickets. James Zimba was the best batsman for Zambia with 30 runs in 52 balls adding to his teams 163 all out. Botswana chased the total and finished 166/7 in 45.2 overs.
Nigeria lost to Sierra Leone by two wickets after they set a total of 167/6 after 50 overs. Nigeria’s top batsmen on the day were Rotim Adesaya and Olusuya Anyiya who both had 38 runs. Edward Marrah had 3/17 after 10 overs for Sierra Leone.
During the chase Emmanuel Pessima got 63 runs after 82 runs. Sierra Leone finished at 201/8 after 44.3 overs to win the match. Anyiya got 4 wickets for 35 runs in eight overs.
Thursday is a rest day and matches will resume on Friday when Namibia play against Kenya at CCD. At the Wanderers field, Uganda will face Zambia and Sierra Leone will play against Botswana at the United fields. Tanzania will play at WAP against Nigeria.