FAST bowler Louis Klazinga inspired a great comeback as Namibia seized the initiative on the third day of their four-day ICC Shield match against the United Arab Emirates at the Wanderers grounds yesterday.
At 238 for the loss of four wickets, the visitors were in command and closing in on Namibia’s first innings total of 369, but Klazinga struck with the second new ball, to clean up UAE’s tail.Klazinga dismissed five of the last six batsmen, for an excellent haul of 5/61 off 25 overs. The final six wickets produced only 59 more runs as UAE crashed to 297 all out, to give Namibia a 72-run lead on the first innings. Shortly before tea yesterday, Namibia had reached 60/1 in their second innings for an overall lead of 132 runs. With one day’s play remaining, the initiative has now swung back to the home side to win the match. Namibia got off to a steady start after the UAE won the toss on Saturday and sent the home team in to bat. Raymond van Schoor and Willem Groenewald put on 43 runs for the first wicket before Van Schoor lost his patience and was out, caught to a rash hook shot off Qasim Zubair’s bowling for 32, with the total on 43.Groenewald was out minutes later, LBW to Zubair for 10, but the rest of Namibia’s top order batsmen all weighed in with solid contributions. Sarel Burger scored a patient 65 off 179 balls, 16-year-old Wian van Vuuren scored 55 and Craig Williams scored 36 as Namibia reached 5/203.Nicolaas Scholtz and LP van der Westhuizen shared a century stand for the sixth wicket before Scholtz was out for 41, while Van der Westhuizen top scored with 70 runs.Further down the order, Wessel Myburgh was dismissed for a duck, Tobie Verwey scored 12, Elton Ambambi four, and Louis Klazinga 28 not out, as Namibia reached a total of 369 runs. Fayyaz Ahmed was the UAE’s best bowler, taking 4/75 off 29 overs, while Shoaib Sarwar and Qasim Zubair took two wickets each. The UAE got off to a solid start as their openers Arshad Ali and Arfan Haider put on 88 for the first wicket before Sarel Burger dismissed Ali for 47. Burger also dismissed Khuram Khan for 44 and Saqib Ali (nine) with a brilliant catch off his own bowling, and when Haider was eventually out for 84 off Nicolaas Scholtz’s bowling, the UAE were cruising at 4/238.But Scholtz dismissed Fayyaz Ahmed, caught and bowled for six, and the match took a dramatic turn when Klazinga came back to wipe up the tail to put Namibia in the lead. – www.namibiasport.com.na
