Cricket

Cricket Namibia has confirmed the fixtures for the Namibian T20 League that will start on Saturday, January 12.

The Premier League will consist of five teams, namely Wanderers 1, Wanderers 2, Windhoek High School Old Boys Cricket Club (WHSOBCC), United, CCD Cricket Club and Welwitschia.

The teams will play each other on a round robin format. After the finals that will take place on January 26, Round 3 of the  50-overs Premier League will resume on February 8.

Namibia’s Craig Williams, Brandon Viret and Louis Klazinga are among the leading cricketers in the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial three-day and one-day competitions, following their encounters against North West in Windhoek last weekend.

In the One-Day competition, Namibia finished fourth on the log following their stunning 83-run victory against North West on Sunday.

The result saw Namibia collecting five points to join third-placed Gauteng on 14 points, although they have a slightly inferior run aggregate.

Namibia produced a great comeback to beat North West by 83 runs in their 50-over CSA match at the Wanderers field on Sunday.

Namibia’s total of 176 never looked enough, especially after North West’s openers put on 46 runs in the first 10 overs.

But a brilliant run out by Craig Williams inspired a great comeback by the home side and a massive collapse by North West as they lost their remaining nine wickets for only 47 runs, to be all out for 93 runs.

Namibia won the toss and elected to bat but were soon in trouble when Pikki Ya France was bowled for a duck by Cliffe Deacon.

Namibia and North West’s three-day CSA Challenge match petered out in a draw on Saturday, with neither team in sight of victory.

North West declared their second innings at 243 for 7, leaving Namibia an improbable victory target of 313 runs. When the opposing captains finally called it a day, Namibia had reached 98 for two wickets, still 215 runs short of victory.

North West received 8,46 bonus points and Namibia 6,52 bonus points.

A draw was probably a fair result as fortunes swayed throughout the match, but both teams failed to press home their advantage.

Namibia struck back to leave North West reeling at 50/5 in their second innings to get right back in their three-day CSA match in Windhoek on Friday.

North West had dominated most of the first two days’ play, and seemed to be heading for a comfortable victory after establishing a first innings lead of 69 runs.

But a late breakthrough, led by Jason Davidson and Christi Viljoen saw Namibia come right back in contention as North West now hold an overall lead of only 119 runs with five wickets remaining.

North West recovered to reach 345 for 7 wickets at the end of the first day’s play in their three-day CSA match against Namibia in Windhoek on Thursday.

North West seemed to be heading for a low score when they were reduced to 163 for 6, but Cliffe Deacon led a fine comeback with a century as the visitors finished the day in command.

Deacon finished the day on 113 not out, which came off 220 balls and included 10 fours and one six.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat and were soon in trouble as they lost their first two wickets for only 26 runs on the board.

Namibia’s national cricket team continued to make its mark on the international stage and held its own with some fine performances against the world’s second tier cricketing nations.

It also nearly qualified for its first ever T20 World Cup, but inexperience on the big stage put paid to their chances.

Namibia had a great start to the T20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Dubai, UAE in March, winning all seven their group matches to go to the top of the standings.

Three years ago the development program of Cricket Namibia knocked on the doors of People’s Primary School in Katutura, Windhoek.

Development officers started coaching cricket at the school every Monday during physical education periods.

This formed part of the Kwata Cricket Development project of Cricket Namibia in partnership with UNICEF and MTC introducing cricket and healthy lifestyle games to children irrespective of race, creed, gender and social background.

Cricket Namibia’s U13 boys’ team had a very successful tournament in Worcester at the Western Cape Regional Provincial U13 Boys Cricket Tournament that was unrivaled in the past.

They won all their 50-over matches and returned to Windhoek as the champions of the tournament with a trophy as proof. They also reached the semi finals of the 15-over competition where they lost the match in the last over.

On Monday, 10 December, Namibia started their tournament with a win against Cashup Challengers in the first 50 over match.

The Cricket Namibia U/15 team participated in the Cricket South Africa PG Bison U/15 Cricket Week in Durban, South Africa, from 9 to 12 December 2012.

Three formats of cricket were played starting with two matches of Time Cricket, a longer version of the game where more than one innings per team can be played.

Although both matches were drawn, Namibia recorded winning draws by outplaying their opponents in the first innings.