NEPAL beat Namibia by 39 runs in their Under-19 Cricket World Cup playoff match yesterday, with the result that Namibia will now play off for 15th position against Zimbabwe in their final match tomorrow.
Nepal elected to bat after winning the toss and posted 219 runs for seven wickets in their 50 overs. Namibia got bogged down by Nepal’s accurate bowling and could not maintain the asking run rate and were eventually all out for 180 runs.After electing to bat, Nepal were soon in trouble when Andre Engelbrecht dismissed Fajlur Rahman for 5 with the total on 11.Christopher Coombe took two wickets in quick succession to leave Nepal reeling at 29 for three wickets.Namibia could however not press home their advantage and allowed Nepal to get back into the game, with middle order batsman Pradeep Airee leading their comeback.He went on to top score with 98 not out off 76 balls, which included three sixes, and received good support from Rajesh Magar (24), Prithu Baskota (18) and Hasim Ansari (18), as Nepal reached 219 for seven wickets off their 50 overs.Christopher Coombe was Namibia’s best bowler, taking three wickets for 61 runs off 10 overs, while Shalako Groenewald took two for 35 off 10 overs.Namibia’s run chase got off to a poor start as they lost the early wickets of Pelham Myburgh (5) and Justin Baard (2), to be two wickets down for 22 runs.Michiel du Preez and Stephan Baard took the total to 51 before Du Preez was out for 21, while Malan Kruger was dismissed for 13 with the total on 72.With 25 overs remaining, Namibia were slipping behind the required run rate and still needed 148 runs for victory at nearly six runs to the over. But Zhivago Groenewald and Stephan Baard gave them hope with a 71-run partnership for the fifth wicket before Baard was bowled for 56, which came off 86 balls.Namibia’s hopes of a comeback were dashed when left arm spinner Bhuvan Karki dismissed Groenewald for 54 which came off 64 balls and included two sixes.Karki ripped through Namibia’s lower order to finish with five wickets for 21 runs as the whole Namibian team was dismissed for 180 runs off 46,3 overs.Namibia will now play Zimbabwe in their final match on Thursday for the 15th and 16th place playoff.- namibiasport.com.na
