Namibia crashed to an innings and 27-run defeat to Western province in their three-day Cricket South Africa three-day match at Newlands, Cape Town over the weekend.
Western Province amassed a first innings score of 325 for six wickets declared, and then dismissed Namibia for 174 in their first, and 124 in their second innings, to complete a comfortable victory.
After winning the toss and sending WP in to bat, Namibia got off to a great start when Brandon Viret dismissed Matthew Kleinveldt for a duck off the fifth ball of the innings.
Christi Viljoen dismissed Sharn Gomes for 11 to restrict WP to 33 for two but from then on the home side took control as their top order batsmen all made big contributions.
Pieter Malan led the way with 94 off 131 balls, while Sybrand Engelbrecht added 66, Alistair Gray 65 and Bradley Barnes 60 not out, as WP declared at 325 for six wickets.
Christi Viljoen was Namibia’s best bowler, taking three wickets for 6 runs off 22,4 overs.
Namibia’s innings got off to a poor start when Stephen Baard and Raymond van Schoor were both dismissed for ducks off successive balls with the total on four, and from then on they could not recover, losing wickets at regular intervals.
They crashed to 36 for six wickets before Christi Viljoen joined Nicolaas Scholtz in a 102-run stand for the seventh wicket.
Viljoen eventually top scored with 58 while Scholtz scored 42, before the whole team was out for 174 runs.
Forced to follow on, Namibia lost Stephen Baard early for two runs, but Xander Pitchers and Raymond van Schoor took the total to 50 before Pitchers was out for 23.
Van Schoor went on to top score with 48, while Nicolaas Scholtz added 34, but they received little support as the whole team was dismissed for 124.
Matthew Kleinveldt with three wickets for six runs, and Alistair Gray with three wickets for 23 runs were WP’s best bowlers.
WP obtained 18,5 bonus points and Namibia 3,48 bonus points. WP now lead the 14-team log on 85,6 points, while Namibia is bottom of the log on 32,94 points.
Western Province also comfortably won their 50-over match by 43 runs on 7 December.
National opening batsman Richard Levi set up their victory with a great century, scoring 140 off 110 balls, which included 15 fours and six sixes.
He received good support from Sybrand Engelbrecht who scored 54 not out, as WP reached an imposing total of 294 for seven off their 50 overs.
Namibia lost Xander Pitchers for 17, but Stephen Baard and Raymond van Schoor kept them on target with a 98-run partnership before Baard was out for 61. Van Schoor was out for 59 but Namibia soon fell behind the asking run rate while they also regularly lost wickets.
Only Nicolaas Scholtz with 21 and Christi Viljoen with 52 not out managed to reach double figures before the whole team was out for 251 runs.
Namibia are also bottom of the 50-over log with five points from five matches.
Namibia’s next match in the CSA series starts against Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth on Thursday.
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