Eagles off to tentative start 

The FNB Namibian Eagles’ tour of Canada got off to a tentative start with a narrow 10-run victory against Canada A in Toronto on Monday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Namibia crashed to 43 for eight wickets before a JJ Smit-led revival saw them recovering to 87 all out.

It was not much of a total to defend, but Namibia’s bowlers responded in style to skittle Canada A out for 77 to seal a narrow victory.

Namibia’s innings got off to a slow start before Canadian pace bowler Zahid Shirzad struck with two wickets in four balls, bowling WP Myburgh and Jan Frylinck for ducks.

Shirzad also bowled Gerhard Erasmus for a duck two overs later and although JP Kotze provided a bit of resistance, his dismissal for 27 by Sukhjinder Singh sparked another batting collapse.

Malan Kruger (2), Nicol Loftie-Eaton (0), Zane Green (1) and Dylan Leicher (0) were all dismissed in quick succession as Namibia crashed to 43/8 by the 22nd over.

Smit, however, steadied the ship with a composed innings, scoring 38 not out off 64 balls, which included two sixes and one four, before Namibia were all out for 87 off only 36 overs.

Shirzad and Singh were Canada A’s best bowlers, taking 4/19 and 4/11, respectively.

In reply, Canada A were immediately in trouble as Smit and Bernard Scholtz cut through their top order to leave them reeling at 4/12 after seven overs.

Samit Gohil led a revival, but wickets continued to fall all around him and when Leicher ran out Gohil for 27, they had crashed to 52/8.

Singh gave Canada A hope with a defiant knock further down the order, before being bowled by Nicol Loftie-Eaton for 20 as Canada A fell 10 runs short of the target.

Loftie-Eaton was Namibia’s best bowler taking 3/23, while Scholtz took 2/11 and Smit 2/4.

The match forms part of a warm-up series also involving Canada’s national side and an Emerging Canada team in preparation of the Cricket World Cup League 2 Tri-Series between Canada, Scotland and Namibia that starts on 27 August.

In another match in the warm-up series on Monday, Canada beat their Emerging side by four wickets, chasing down a target of 180 in 33 overs for the loss of six wickets.

EAGLES FACE HUGE TASK

The Eagles face a huge task to try and improve their log position in the Cricket World Cup League 2 tournament if they want to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the 2027 Cricket World Cup that Namibia will host along with South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The top four teams in the eight-nation competition will progress to the final qualifying tournament for the 2027 World Cup, while the bottom four will go into another play-off tournament for the final qualifier.

A top four place will significantly improve their chances, but they are struggling at the moment in sixth position on 14 points, with just Nepal (12) and United Arab Emirates (6) below them.

The United States and The Netherlands lead the log on 28 points each, followed by Scotland and Oman and 24 each, and Canada on 20 points, so Namibia will have to pick up a few wins in Canada if they hope to close the gap.

Canada and Scotland, however, will provide tough challenges with both sides having strengthened their teams in recent years, while Scotland are also the defending champions.

Scotland recently announced the addition of former New Zealand international Tom Bruce to their squad after he acquired Scottish citizenship through his Edinburgh-born father.

Bruce, who played 17 T20 internationals for New Zealand, made headlines earlier this year when he achieved the third highest score in New Zealand cricketing history, scoring 345 off 401 balls.

Canada, meanwhile, have an abundance of expatriates in their team due to lenient citizenship criteria of three to five years residence, with more than half of their players coming from traditional cricketing nations like India, Pakistan and the West Indies.

Namibia, by contrast, have very strict citizenship criteria of 10 years’ residence, with the result that they have to make use of home-grown talent.

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