Namibia’s World Cup dream is over

NAMIBIA’S World Cup dream finally ended when they lost by 21 runs to Afghanistan in Krugersdorp on Friday.

The result saw Namibia finishing at the bottom of the Super Eight log with four points, while the top four teams, Ireland, Canada, Kenya and the Netherlands qualified for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
Namibia came desperately close to beating Afghanistan, with Gerrie Snyman and veteran Deon Kotze playing major roles, but once their middle order was dismissed the pendulum swung Afghanistan’s way.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat. Louis Klazinga made an early breakthrough, trapping Noor Ali LBW for 2 and when Sarel Burger bowled Karim Sadiq for 14 Afghanistan were two wickets down for 51 runs.
Mohammad Shehzad and Norooz Mangal put Afghanistan in command with an 87-run partnership, and at 130/2 with 20 overs remaining Afghanistan were set for a big total.
Namibia’s spinners, led by Deon Kotze however reigned Afghanistan’s batsmen in with some tight bowling and Kotze went on to dismiss Shehzad for 73. Kotze also ran out Mangal for 78, and with Nicolaas Scholtz and LP van der Westhuizen picking up a wicket apiece Afghanistan were limited to 243/7 off their 50 overs.
Kotze was Namibia’s most effective bowler, taking 1/27 off 10 overs.
Namibia lost JB Burger early for a duck, while Sarel Burger followed soon after for 16 and Raymond van Schoor for 14 to leave Namibia struggling at 40/3.
The wickets continued to fall as Craig Williams was dismissed for a rapid 25 while Louis Burger was out for 6 to leave Namibia reeling at 79/5.
Gerrie Snyman and Nicolaas Scholtz however revived Namibian hopes with a fine sixth wicket partnership of 77 runs before Scholtz was dismissed for 33, with the total on 156. At that stage Namibia were still very much in the game, needing 88 runs for victory off 72 balls with Gerrie Snyman not out on 48.
Namibia’s hopes were however dashed when Snyman was bowled by Hamid Hassan for 54, and although the lower order battled valiantly, the target was now too big.
The Kotze brothers Deon and Bjorn nearly pulled Namibia through before both were dismissed for 19, while LP van der Westhuizen added 12 as Namibia were all out for 222 with nine balls remaining.