Cricket

Cricket Namibia has announced a preliminary squad of eighteen players who will represent Namibia at the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Dubai in March. The squad will be trimmed down to the final fourteen in the next week.

Graham McMillan, CEO of Cricket Namibia said “These are the best cricketers that Namibia cricket can put into the field. We have a really tough pool in the round robin stages of the tournament, but we feel that these players will be able to get us in to the play offs of the competition.”

The CEO of Cricket Namibia, Graham McMillan has called for an improved performance by Namibia when they take on Kwazulu Natal in a Cricket South Africa (CSA) match at the Wanderers field, starting on Thursday.

Namibia are currently struggling in the three-day series and are second last on the 14-team log. They were rock bottom in the T20 competition, but are doing significantly better in the 50-over limited series where they are third on the log.

Four female Namibian cricket players were invited to the ICC-Africa Regional Office’s Senior Women’s Elite Cricket Academy from 11 to 14 February in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The aim of the academy is to enhance the players’ cricketing skills as well as motivate and enhance women’s participation in cricket in Africa.

The four players who were invited are Anneri van Schoor who captained the team at the African T20 competition held in Uganda recently, Irene van Zyl (vice captain), Carmin Liebenberg (wicket keeper) and Loraine Brink (opening batsman).

Namibia’s poor run in the Cricket South Africa series continued when they lost both their 3-Day Challenge and T20 match against Easterns in Benoni over the weekend.

In the 3-Day Challenge, Namibia won the toss and elected to bat, but they were soon in trouble as Gerhard Rudolph (3), Christi Viljoen (4) and Craig Williams (0) were all dismissed cheaply.

Pikkie Ya France (22) and Gerrie Snyman (13) gave Namibia brief hope, but after that the wickets tumbled regularly. Only new cap Gert Dippenaar (21) managed to reach double figures as Namibia were all out for a paltry 96.

North West completed a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Namibia in their T20 match in Potchefstroom on Sunday.

Namibia posted a competitive total of 182/3 off their 20 overs but North West easily reached the total for the loss of only one wicket.

Gerhard Rudolph and Ian Opperman got off to a great start and put on 92 runs for the first wicket before Rudolph was out for 41.

Opperman, who was making his T20 debut for Namibia, went on to top score with 60 runs off 45 balls (4x4, 3x6).

Christi Viljoen, the Namibian medium-pacer, has said he had waited all his life for an opportunity to play against a top international team, and was determined to do well for the ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI in their three-day match against England at the Global Cricket Academy ground in Dubai.

Viljoen was picked in the Combined XI primarily as a bowler, but impressed with the bat on the first day, scoring 98 to help his team recover from 122 for 7 to 281.

It was Viljoen's highest score in first-class cricket, and only his third half-century.

England were given a good workout in the field on the opening day of their first warm-up match of the tour as the tail wagged for a ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI. First-class best inning from Christi Viljoen and Boyd Rankin revived the innings after England made a rampant start.

Stuart Broad claimed three wickets in his first three overs as England took command at lunch but Namibian allrounder Viljoen and Warwickshire bowler Rankin rallied in the lower order with a partnership of 96 to give England a testing final session.

Namibia suffered a comprehensive 10-wicket defeat to North West in their CSA Three-Day Challenge match in Potchefstroom on Saturday.

After dismissing Namibia for 256 in their first innings, North West piled on the runs to declare their first innings at 418 for nine wickets.

Namibia’s batsmen once again failed to apply themselves in the second innings as they were all out for 205, leaving North West the simple task of scoring 44 for victory.

North West took control of their CSA 3-Day Challenge match against Namibia in Potchefstroom on Friday as they declared their first innings at a commanding 418/9.

With Nicky van den Berg leading the way they piled on the runs to take a 162-run lead on the first innings.

Van den Bergh scored 159 runs before he was dismissed off debutant Ian Opperman’s bowling.

Van den Berg received good support from Brett Pelser (50), Jimmy Kgamadi (66) and Dwaine Pretorius (75) as North West stretched their first innings lead over Namibia.

Gerrie Snyman led a Namibian comeback to take them to 156/4 in a rain affected first day’s play against North West in Potchefstroom on Thursday.

Namibia got off to a poor start, losing their first three wickets for only 46 runs.

Pikkie Ya France was dismissed for 10 with the total on 19, while Sarel Burger followed shortly afterwards for 5 runs. When Gerhard Rudolph was dismissed for 20, Namibia had slumped to 46 for 3 wickets.