KWAZULU Natal Inland beat Namibia by 90 runs in their three-day SAA Challenge match in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.
Kwazulu were always in control of the match after skittling Namibia out for just 178 runs in their first innings, but Namibia staged a fine recovery to make a fight of it till the end.
Kwazulu got off to a great start in their first innings and seemed to be heading for a big score when they reached 120/1. Louis Klazinga made the initial breakthrough and although wickets were hard to come by, Namibia managed to restrict the hosts to 320/6 when their enforced declaration came after 85 overs.
Craig Williams went on to score a great century before finally being dismissed for 103 runs. In the process Namibia just managed to avoid the follow on as the whole team was out for 178 runs, to avoid the follow on by a mere eight runs.
Namibia’s young off spinner Bernard Scholtz gave a great bowling display in Kwazulu’s second innings, taking 5/58 off 15 overs, to restrict the hosts to 239/8.
The victory target of 382 seemed beyond Namibia but they got off to a fine start as ST Ackerman scored 27 and Raymond van Schoor 46.
At lunch on the final day Namibia were still in with a chance, having reached 132/2 still 250 runs behind with eight wickets in hand. Gerrie Snyman was out for 30 while Gerhard Rudolph top scored with 74 as Namibia reached 225/4, still 157 runs behind.
Namibia’s lower order could however not respond as wickets fell regularly.
– www.namibiasport.com.na
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