NAMIBIA maintained their unbeaten run in the Sunfoil 3-Day Cup after a stunning 164 run victory against Gauteng on Saturday.
Set a victory target of 264 runs, Gauteng crumbled to 99 all out in their second innings with Danie van Schoor the main destroyer with excellent bowling figures of five wickets for 27 runs off nine overs.
Namibia were dismissed for 257 in their first innings with Stephen Baard scoring 71 and Craig Williams 69. None of Namibia’s other batsmen managed to build a big score and their total didn’t seem enough on a batsman’s wicket, but their bowlers came to the rescue with an inspired performance.
Gauteng got off to a good start in their first innings with Valli and Hendricks putting on 123 runs for the first wicket.
Van Schoor, however, got the breakthrough, bowling Dominic Hendricks for 45 and when Sarel Burger dismissed Yaseen Valli for 87 it started a slide as Gauteng lost three wickets for only seven runs.
Van Schoor dismissed Tshepang Dithole for 35 while Burger dismissed Shaylen Pillay for a duck as Gauteng were pegged back at 170 for four wickets.
Namibia chipped away with regular wickets and eventually dismissed Gauteng for 247 to hold a 10-run lead on the first innings.
Burger took three wickets for 33 runs off 14,2 overs and Van Schoor three wickets for 78 runs off 22 overs.
In Namibia’s second innings, LP van der Westhuizen was out early on for 14, but another fine innings by Stephen Baard set them on their way.
He put on 92 runs for the second wicket with JP Kotze who scored 32, and when Baard was eventually out for 67, Namibia were well set at 167 for four wickets.
There were also good contributions by Jean Bredenkamp (33) and Jan Frylinck (45 not out) as Namibia declared at 253 for five wickets, setting Gauteng a victory target of 264.
In Gauteng’s second innings, JJ Smit got an early breakthrough, dismissing Valli for three, and although Hendricks gave Gauteng hope with a fine innings of 42, Gauteng’s resistance soon crumbled in the face of some great spin bowling by Van Schoor and Bernard Scholtz.
Van Schoor dismissed Hendricks and Bergh off successive balls and when Scholtz dismissed Pillay for a duck they had crashed to 54 for six wickets.
They could not recover and were all out for 99 to give Namibia a commanding victory.
Van Schoor was Namibia’s stand out bowler, taking five wickets for 27 runs for match figures of 8/105, while JJ Smit took 4/16 off 11,1 overs.
It was the fourth successive match that Namibia had won and sees them remaining at the top of the log on 90,68 points, well ahead of second-placed KwaZulu Natal on 64,38 points.
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