Boland beat Namibia in thriller

BOLAND beat Namibia by three wickets in a thrilling CSA One Day limited-overs match at the Wanderers field on Saturday.

Namibia batted first and reached a small total of 184/9 off their 40 overs. It didn’t seem to be enough but Namibia’s bowlers did well to restrict Boland’s batsmen and with 10 overs remaining the visitors were at 124/4 needing a run a ball to win the match.With an over remaining the match was in the balance with Boland needing seven runs for victory, but they secured the win off the second last ball of the match when Tiaan Cloete hit a four. Namibia’s batsmen got off to a slow start as they were pegged back by Boland’s bowlers. Raymond van Schoor (8) and Gerhard Rudolph (6) were dismissed early, and when Louis Vorster was out for 10, Namibia were struggling at 37/3.Namibia’s English professional Tony Palladino however joined Sarel Burger to give Namibia hope with a fine partnership of 43 runs before Palladino was out, caught on the boundary for 31.When Sarel Burger was out for 47, Namibia’s total was at 118 with only seven overs remaining. Some lusty hitting down the order by LP van der Westhuizen (29) and Craig Williams (18) however enabled Namibia to reach 184/9 off their 40 overs. For Boland, Hillroy Paulse took three wickets for 32 runs, while Clayton August took 3/34. Boland lost the wicket of Henry Davids early on for eight runs, but that was Namibia’s only early success as Boland’s batsmen, led by Omphile Ramela started to dominate. Emile Kriek (12) and Henno Jordaan (18) failed to get into their stride, but Tiaan Cloete joined Ramela to steer Boland towards victory.Pace bowler Louis Klazinga however put Namibia right back in the game with three wickets within two overs. He first dismissed Ramela for 79 and then dismissed Godfrey Stevens and Ockert Erasmus with successive balls to reduce Boland to 170/6. Tiaan Cloete (39 not out) and Clayton August (5 not out) however took Boland to victory. Klazinga was Namibia’s top bowler, taking 3/38 off eight overs, while Tony Palladino took two wickets and Craig Williams and LP van der Westhuizen one each. On Friday, Namibia crashed to a 10-wicket defeat to Boland in their three-day CSA Challenge match. After Boland built up a first innings lead of 109 runs, they skittled Namibia out for 134 runs in their second innings, leaving a victory target of 26 runs, which they reached without the loss of a wicket. namibiasport.com.na