The FNB Namibia Eagles got off to a flying start on their Canadian tour with a five-wicket victory against the home team on Wednesday, but a tough task awaits today when they take on Scotland.
Against Canada, Jan Frylinck was the star, scoring a superb century as Namibia chased down a target of 220 with five wickets in hand and two overs to spare.
After being sent in to bat, Canada got off to a strong start with openers Ali Abassi scoring 46 and Yuvraj Samra 30, but after their departure the momentum shifted to Namibia as they crashed to 140/7.
A 58-run eighth wicket partnership between Saad Zafar (35) and Shivam Sharma (29), however, revived their innings as they recovered to post a competitive total.
Tangeni Lungameni with three wickets for 51 runs, and Nicol Loftie-Eaton with 3/22 were Namibia’s best bowlers.
In reply, Namibia slumped to 23 for three wickets after the early dismissals of WP Myburgh (0), JP Kotze (3) and Gerhard Erasmus (2), but Frylinck and the Dylan Leicher (21) came to the rescue with a great partnership of 151 runs.
Leicher showed great maturity to withstand Canada’s onslaught before eventually being dismissed for 58, while Frylinck was superb, taking Namibia to the brink of victory before he was dismissed for 114 off 146 balls, which included 12 fours.
JJ Smit added 25 off 17 balls as Namibia clinched a vital victory, which put them on 16 points on the log, although they are still well behind the pace setters United States and The Netherlands on 28, and Scotland and Oman on 24.
Coach Craig Williams says his team showed a lot of character.
“We are happy to walk away with a win. The conditions were quite tough and I think the boys showed a lot of character, with Jan Frylinck getting a century and the young Dylan Leicher who went in to bat at 23/3, getting a very valuable 58,” he says.
“It’s really good to walk away with two points even though we didn’t play as well as we would have liked to, but it’s a good learning curve, and to win our first game on tour like that . . . we’ll take it all day,” he says.
Namibia now face an even tougher task against Scotland, who have dominated Namibia in recent matches.
Over the past three years they have played eight one-day international (ODI) matches with Scotland winning seven and Namibia only one.
Besides that, Scotland also won the previous Cricket World Cup League 2 tournament, while they boast a strong side with world-class players.
Top-order batter Brandon McMullen is currently ranked sixth among the world’s leading ODI all-rounders, while captain Richie Berrington, George Munsey, Michael Leask and Mark Watt are all match winners.
Williams says it will be a big challenge, but he remains optimistic.
“It’s a big reset for us, and the boys have to get into ice baths and recover well. We’ve got a bit of training tomorrow and top-up work, and then we go into Scotland on Friday, so it’s important for us to have a very big reset.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time.
“We’re looking to play better than we did today in certain areas, and be more clinical. Scotland are a good team, so we can’t take anything for granted, but we’re looking for a good result,” he says.
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