NAMIBIA face a do-or-die match against Tanzania on Tuesday if they hope to reach the final of the ICC Women’s World T20 Africa qualifier.
Namibia have lost both their matches to date in the five-nation tournament and are currently bottom of the log on zero points, along with Tanzania, who have lost their opening three matches in the tournament.
Namibia still have a slight chance of making the play-offs, but they will have to win their final two group matches against Tanzania on Tuesday and Kenya on Wednesday, and hope that other results go their way.
The top team at the end of the group stages will qualify automatically for the final, where they will take on the winner between the second and third-placed teams. The fourth and fifth-placed teams will also have a positional play-off, but they will be out of the running for a semifinal spot, with the result that all the teams will be aiming to finish amongst the top three.
Uganda currently lead the log on six points after winning all three their matches to date, followed by Zimbabwe (four points) who won their opening two matches. Kenya, who have one win from their opening two matches are third on two points, while Namibia and Tanzania must still open their account.
Namibia have a good chance of beating Tanzania, but they will have to play to their full potential and cut out their mistakes.
They were unfortunate to lose their opening match against Uganda by 21 runs after they were in a strong position to win the match.
Led by captain Petro Enright who took five wickets for 18 runs, Namibia did well to restrict Uganda to 97, but their batsmen didn’t live up to expectations as they were all out for 76. Only three Namibian batsmen reached double figures in Irene van Zyl (22), Adri van der Merwe (16) and Yasmeen Khan (10).
Namibia’s bowlers were also too sloppy, conceding 19 extras, which, had it not been the case, could have made for an extremely tight finish.
In their next match against Zimbabwe they were thoroughly outplayed, but poor batting and sloppy bowling led to their downfall, as they once again conceded 19 extras.
Namibia’s batsmen could only muster 71 for seven wickets off their 20 overs, with Enright (19) and Van der Merwe (16) the top batsmen.
Zimbabwe easily reached the target for the loss of two wickets, off only 10,2 overs.
Tanzania have also not had a good start, after losing all three their matches to date.
On Friday they lost by two wickets to Kenya, after scoring a modest 87/3, while Kenya replied with 88/8 with an over to spare.
On Saturday, they lost by seven wickets against Uganda after scoring 78/7, while Uganda replied with 79/3, and on Sunday, they suffered a 72-run defeat against Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe scored 125/8 off their 20 overs, but Tanzania were never in the hunt and could only score 53/5.
Namibia’s match against Tanzania will start at 13h45 at the Wanderers field on Tuesday, while Kenya take on Zimbabwe at the same venue at 10h00.
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