Cricket team shows promise at T20 Africa Cup Namibia’s senior national cricket side showed glimpses of what they are capable of during this year’s Africa T20 Cup but eventually couldn’t achieve their goal of topping the table.The Africa T20 Cup is a Twenty20 cricket tournament organised by Cricket South Africa (CSA).
It features a combination of South African provincial teams and teams representing other African countries, including Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Namibia, coached by Dayanand Thakur, used the event in Pietermaritzburg to prepare for their crucial away matches in the ICC’s Intercontinental Cup and World Cricket League next month in Papua New Guinea.
The visitors got off to a flying start when they beat Western Province by two runs last Friday.
Thanks in big parts to Pikky Ya France’s 40 runs; the Namibians accumulated 137 for 9 wickets off their 20 overs.
In their innings, Western Province got off to a slow start but gradually built the pressure.
Namibia started throwing everything they had at the South Africans as JJ Smit got three wickets to keep the opponents at bay.
With only a single over left to play for Western Province, the result could go either way but the Namibians held on to take home the win.
The following day would see an equally close encounter against North West, but this time the Eagles were on the losing end.
With Stephen Baard (43) and the in-form Ya France (24) looking to score almost at will, another win looked to be on the cards.
However, both were bowled out in quick succession and the rest of the batting order couldn’t utilise their full potential, ending their innings at 132/8.
In reply, North West racked up 135 runs in 19 overs to win the game by four wickets.
In their last game, the Namibians were beaten convincingly by a strong KwaZulu-Natal Inland side.
KZN reached 146/9 in their 20 overs. Namibia were bowled out for 84.
From 14 to 22 September, Saudi Arabia will arrive in the Namibian capital for three friendly games.
The two nations, whose aim is to build long-term relationships for the future, will play one T20 match on the 16th, followed by two 50-over games the following two days.
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