Namibia come up short against the Dutch 

Namibia got off to a losing start against The Netherlands at the T20 World Cup yesterday, but now face the daunting task of taking on world champions India tomorrow.

Yesterday’s seven wicket defeat to The Netherlands temporarily put Namibia second last in Group A on zero points along with the United States, and with only three group matches remaining, they will now have to pick up some wins if they hope to make it to the Super 8 knockout stage.

After losing the toss and being sent in to bat, Namibia were restricted to 156/8, which was not enough as The Netherlands comfortably reached the target for the loss of three wickets and 12 balls to spare.

In Namibia’s innings, Louren Steenkamp was dismissed early on for six, but Jan Frylinck and Nicol Loftie-Eaton revived the innings with a 50-run partnership.

The going was a bit slow though, and when Frylinck was caught behind for 30, they only had 60 runs on the board, nearly halfway through their innings.

Loftie-Eaton and Gerhard Erasmus tried to pick up the pace with the latter hitting two fours and a six off successive balls against Tim van der Gugten, but he was gone the next over for 18, caught at midwicket off Bas de Leede’s bowling.

Loftie-Eaton followed soon after, caught in the deep for a top score of 42 off 38 balls (1×4, 2×6), and although JJ Smit gave Namibia hope with 22, The Netherlands’ bowlers pegged them back with regular wickets as Namibia were restricted to a manageable target.

In reply, The Netherlands lost Max O’ Dowd early on for seven runs, while Ruben Trumpelmann dismissed Levitt for 28, but Colin Ackermann joined De Leede and put the Dutch in charge with a 70-run partnership.

When Ackerman was eventually out for 32, with the total at 116/3, Namibia still had a chance, but De Leede took the Dutch to victory with a superb 72 not out off 48 balls (5×4, 4×6), while Scott Edwards remained not out on 18.

Namibia coach Craig Williams said it was a disappointing start for Namibia.

“It’s obviously a disappointing result. I think we really gave a good effort in most departments but we were probably 20 or 30 runs short. But the mood is still good in the camp, the next challenge is going to be India, so we will train tomorrow and prepare for that,” he said.

“It was a bad toss to lose and it was definitely a disadvantage to bat first, but we also missed some opportunities in the game,” he added.

BATTING TOO SLOW

Erasmus said their batting was too slow.

“I thought we did reasonably well in the power play – it was quite a tacky wicket at the start of the morning so I thought that 40/1 mark was probably a bit low on runs, but really good in terms of assessing where we were in the game.

“The ball was really stopping a bit with the spin bowling but I think we did a decent job until about the 12th over to try and get to a competitive total but we couldnt quite push that total nice and deep,” he said.

“I thought there were some big moments in those last three overs that just didnt allow us to get to the 165, 170-mark and then put some pressure on with the ball.”

Erasmus said their bowlers tried their best to defend the total but it was not good enough in the end.

“I think there was still enough in the wicket, to try and get a bit of pressure going, but it’s always tough to manage that when you feel that you are 10 or 20 runs short. That forces you to make some extra changes, you have to buy a wicket or an over here or there – we tried our level best at periods but we didnt quite have enough on the board to apply that pressure and get a win,” he said.

Namibia now face a huge task when they take on India at the 41 000-seater Arjun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi in a night game tomorrow and Erasmus said they will have to adjust to the circumstances.

“We will have to adjust to the lights and I suppose its going to be a super loud game so we will just try and figure out those things and enjoy the occasion. If you do that I think your body language should be really positive and then the results should follow,” he said.

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