Namibia qualified for next year’s U19 Cricket World Cup when they beat Uganda by 39 runs in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.
It was Namibia’s fourth successive victory at the U19 African Championship and with their closest opponents, Kenya losing to Botswana, Namibia are now assured of winning the tournament.
Batting first, Namibia could only post a modest total of 139 for eight wickets off their 50 overs, but their bowlers responded in great style, dismissing Uganda for 100 runs, to book their place at the 2016 U19 World Cup in Bangladesh.
Namibian coach Norbert Manyande said they had prepared well for the tournament and that their hard work had paid off.
“We have achieved our goal which was to qualify for the 2016 World Cup and everyone is chuffed and happy. We have come a long way, we had a one-week tour to Zimbabwe where we played three games, so we definitely prepared well for the tournament and the results talk for themselves now,” he said.
Team manager Steven Berry said the players were in jubilant mood after the match.
“The vibe in the camp at the moment is fantastic and the guys are jubilant and jumping all over the show because they obviously know that they have qualified. It’s quite a good vibe at the moment so we are looking forward to tomorrow’s match and bringing the trophy back home to Namibia,” he said.
Berry said it was a tight match while the conditions were not easy to play in.
“It was a tight match and the conditions were quite difficult in the beginning. We had to change the pitch, because the original pitch was wet so we had to play on an unprepared pitch,” he said.
Berry however paid tribute to the Namibian team for showing a lot of character to clinch the victory.
“I think the guys showed a lot of character. They struggled to score some runs in the beginning but SJ Loftie Eaton batted very well, scoring 56 not out while he scored 30 runs off the last three overs. When it came to the bowling the guys did very well. Mias Strauss took five wickets for 24 runs and he was well assisted by Ruben van den Berg who took 3 wickets,” he said.
Batting first, Namibia got off to a slow start and lost their first two wickets in quick succession when Tiaan Steenkamp (13) and Jurgen Linde (8) were dismissed with the total on 38.
Captain Zane Green followed shortly after for seven runs and when Namibia reached the halfway stage of their innings they had only scored 63 runs for three wickets.
SJ Loftie-Eaton however kept the innings together with a great knock and although Nico Davin went cheaply for 6, Miass Strauss joined Loftie-Eaton to take the score past 100 by the 45th over.
Uganda kept up the pressure with regular wickets as Strauss was dismissed for 11, Chrischen Olivier for 2 and Francois Rautenbach for 7, but Loftie-Eaton stepped up the run rate in the final overs as Namibia reached 139 for eight wickets of their 50 overs.
Loftie-Eaton was Namibia’s standout batsman and was not out on 56 which came off 115 balls.
In Uganda’s innings, Namibia made an early breakthrough when Nico Davin ran out Zephania Arinaitwe for one run, and with Mias Strauss in inspired form, Uganda’s innings fell to pieces. Strauss ran one batsman out and took three more wickets as Uganda crashed to 19 runs for five wickets.
Ruben van den Bergh kept up the pressure with regular wickets in the lower order before Uganda were eventually all out for 100 runs off 35 overs.
Strauss was Namibia’s best bowler, taking five wickets for 24 runs off 10 overs, while Van den Berg took three wickets for 25 runs off six overs.
Namibia still have a match left against Kenya on Thursday, but the outcome will be of little importance as Namibia cannot be caught anymore and have already qualified for the 2016 U19 Cricket World Cup.
