A devastating bowling display by Eastern Province leg spinner Junaid Dawood saw Namibia slump to an 8-wicket defeat in their Sunfoil 3-Day Cup match at the Wanderers ground on Saturday.
There was nothing to choose between the two sides in the first innings with EP scoring 272 in reply to Namibia’s 271.
In the second innings, however, Dawood claimed career-best figures of 8 wickets for 70 runs as Namibia slumped to 163 all out. EP then comfortably reached the winning target of 164 for the loss of only two wickets.
Dawood had already shown his potential in Namibia’s first innings as he claimed five wickets for 89 runs to restrict the home side to 271 all out.
Namibia were in trouble at a stage at 175 for seven wickets, but Lohan Louwrens led a lower order revival before he was eventually out for a top score of 78.
Jacques Fourie scored 53, Xander Pitchers 31 and Wian van Vuuren 25, while Danie van Schoor added 19 not out.
EP got off to a solid start in their first innings with openers Edward Moore and Gihahn Cloete putting on 98 runs for the first wicket, before Cloete was bowled by Xander Pitchers for 57.
Pitchers and fellow spinner Danie van Schoor, however, plugged away at EP’s batting line-up and the wickets started to fall.
Pitchers also dismissed Moore for 51, Onke Nyaku for 32 and Enrich Nortje for 44, while Van Schoor dismissed most of the other batsmen to have the whole side out for 272.
Van Schoor was Namibia’s top bowler with six wickets for 86 runs, while Pitchers took 4/96.
Dawood took centre stage in Namibia’s second innings, as he weaved a spell of magic to skittle the home side’s batsmen out.
After dismissing opener Wian van Vuuren for 17 before stumps on Friday, he ripped through the middle order on Saturday morning to leave Namibia struggling at 73/6.
Justin Baard led a lower order revival and went on to score 50 before becoming another Dawood victim, but there was not much support as the whole team was out for 163. Dawood was the chief destroyer, taking 8/70 in 26,4 overs.
EP lost Edward Moore (9) and Gihahn Cloete (14) early on, but that was the only success that Namibia would have as David White and Lesiba Ngoepe took them to a comfortable victory.
White was eventually not out on 60 off 123 balls and Ngoepe 72 not out off 82 balls, as EP reached 164/2 off 42,5 overs.
The scorecard:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/1024801.html
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