Davin leads Windhoek Gym to victory

A brilliant century by Niko Davin enabled Windhoek Gymnasium to beat Windhoek High School by 57 runs in the final of the Momentum Cricket Week at Wanderers on Tuesday.

Opening batsman Davin was the star of the final, clubbing 129 not out off only 70 balls, that included 12 fours and five sixes to put his side on the path to victory.

It was the third year in a row that Windhoek Gymnasium had won the tournament which has developed into the top cricket development festival in Namibia since its inception four years ago.

Windhoek Gymnasium fielded a strong side, including four players who represented Namibia at the u19 World Cup in February, namely Niko Davin, Lohan Louwrens, Charl Brits and Eben van Wyk.

Davin and Lohan Louwrens opened the innings for Windhoek Gym, but Louwrens only lasted two balls before he was dismissed off the bowling of Warren van Wyk for a duck.

Charl Brits joined Davin, scoring 18 off 13 balls to take the score to 46 before he was dismissed off Melrick Robin’s bowling.

Eben van Wyk joined Davin and the two batsmen took centre stage as they hit WHS’ bowlers to all corners of the field to build a huge total.

They shared a partnership of 154 runs for the fourth wicket before Van Wyk was dismissed for 44 runs off 36 balls, which included five fours.

Davin was however the main aggressor, hitting some big boundaries, as he raced to his century.

He was eventually not out on 129 as Windhoek Gymnasium reached a huge total of 209 for three wickets off their 20 overs.

Despite the big target, WHS gave chase from the start as their opening batsmen Albert van der Merwe and Christiaan Schumacher put on 54 runs for the first wicket.

Van der Merwe was the first to go for 40 off only 18 balls which included three fours and three sixes, but when he was out, it started a slide from which WHS could not recover.

Kehan van Vuuren (4), Christiaan Schumacher (22) and Noel James (0) all followed in quick succession as WHS crashed to 78 for four wickets.

Damian de Silva (21) and Richard Stears (16 not out) led a brief revival but it was not enough as they were reduced to 152 for seven wickets for Windhoek Gymnasium to complete a comfortable victory.

Lohan Louwrens was Gymnasium’s top bowler, taking three wickets for 20 runs, while De Wet Ferreira took two for 31.

The final capped a great week for Davin who won the Player of the Series award after some explosive batting.

He scored 474 runs in four innings’ at an average of 158 and a strike rate of 207. Besides his 129 in the final, he also scored 78 against WAP, 60 against the Coast and a brilliant 207 off only 87 balls against WHS.

Albert van der Merwe of WHS won the Batsman of the Series award, scoring 230 runs at an average of 57,5 while De Wet Ferreira of Windhoek Gymnasium won the Bowler of the Series award, taking seven wickets for 54 runs at an average of 7,7.

Besides Windhoek Gym and WHS, three other teams competed in the tournament namely Windhoek Afrikaanse Private School (WAP), a Coastal Eleven consisting of players from Walvis Bay and Swakopmund; and a Country Districts team made up of players from Tsumeb, Grootfontein, Otjiwarongo, Keetmanshoop, Elnatan and Gobabis.

It was a closely contested tournament and after the group stages the top three teams had to be separated on nett run rate. Windhoek Gymnasium, WHS and the Coastal team all finished on six points, but the latter didn’t make it to the final due to an inferior run rate.

In the third-place play-off the Coastal team beat WAP by 18 runs.

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