Nepal beat Namibia by three runs

Namibia crashed to a three run defeat against Nepal in the U19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia yesterday.

Nepal batted first and were dismissed for a low score of 164. Namibia seemed to be heading for victory and with three overs remaining needed just five runs to win the match.But they couldn’t finish them off and Nepal snatched a dramatic victory when Elandre Oosthuizen was run-out and Morne Engelbrecht bowled with six balls remaining.Nepal batted first and their openers put on 38 for the first wicket before Keady Strauss bowled Anil Mandal for seven.Morne Engelbrecht then had Gyanendra Malla caught by Pikkie Ya France for a duck and when Louis van der Westhuizen caught and bowled Nepal’s best batsman, Sagar Khadka, for 7 they were struggling at 60/3.But opener Mahesh Chettry kept Nepal in the game with a fine innings, before he was eventually out for 62, caught behind by Ewald Steenkamp off Strauss for 62.Chettry received fine support from A Gupta (21) and R Shrestha (26) before Nepal were all out for 164 off 50 overs.Namibia’s best bowlers were LP van der Westhuizen (2/17), Morne Engelbrecht (2/28) and Keady Strauss (2/37).POOR START FOR NAMIBIA Namibia got off to a bad start as Raymond van Schoor was dismissed for a duck, Claude Bouwer for one and captain Dawid Botha for 5 to leave Namibia reeling at 29/3.But Sean Silver and LP van der Westhuizen rebuilt the innings with a fine partnership of 84 runs before Silver was out for 41.Van der Westhuizen top scored with 65, while Ewald Steenkamp added 11 and Pikkie Ya France 10 as Namibia seemed to be heading for victory.With five overs remaining they just needed 14 runs for victory but failed as Nepal turned on the pressure.Elandre Oosthuizen was run out for seven as he attempted a second run, while Engelbrecht was bowled for seven to give Nepal a three-run victory.Namibian coach Louis Vorster said his boys faltered towards the end when victory seemed to be on their side.”My boys played some bad and the run outs were costly”, said Vorster.Namibia have now lost all three their matches to date after earlier defeats to Australia and Sri Lanka.- www.namibiasport.com.na —- Marathon championship in Swakopmund The 2008 Rossing National Marathon Championship slated for Swakopmund this Saturday will see new champions being crowned, since the 2007 champions Simon Shigwedha and Beata Naigambo will not be participating.Shigwedha is said to be suffering from a stomach virus while Naigambo, who won the 2008 South African Championship two weeks ago, will run in the 10km event.Naigambo, who also won the women’s race in 2005, told Nampa on enquiry yesterday that she will use the 10km event as training for an international marathon race in April this year.She said marathon runners need at least two months to recover from a 42km race that is why she wants to give her body time to get back all its energy.Naigambo also scraped two minutes off her personal best time, improving from two hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds to 2:38.44sec.The Namibia Defence Force (NDF) for whom Shigwedha runs, will send 14 runners to the Swakopmund race that also acts as a qualifier for the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town on March 22 as well as the Comrades Marathon in Durban in June this year.Veteran runner Lucketz Swartbooi still holds the championship record time of 2:11.23 clocked in 1992.Swartbooi also won the championship in 1999.Four-time champion David Salamo is also expected to run after recovering from a car accident in 2007.Salamo won in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006.The race will start at the Palm Beach at 07h00.Registration is from at 18h00 until 21h00 tonight and at 06h00 tomorrow below Café Anton in Swakopmund.The entry fee for the marathon is N$30 and for the 10km event N$20.A 5km Charity Walk for the Cancer Association of Namibia will also take place.- NampaNamibia seemed to be heading for victory and with three overs remaining needed just five runs to win the match.But they couldn’t finish them off and Nepal snatched a dramatic victory when Elandre Oosthuizen was run-out and Morne Engelbrecht bowled with six balls remaining.Nepal batted first and their openers put on 38 for the first wicket before Keady Strauss bowled Anil Mandal for seven.Morne Engelbrecht then had Gyanendra Malla caught by Pikkie Ya France for a duck and when Louis van der Westhuizen caught and bowled Nepal’s best batsman, Sagar Khadka, for 7 they were struggling at 60/3.But opener Mahesh Chettry kept Nepal in the game with a fine innings, before he was eventually out for 62, caught behind by Ewald Steenkamp off Strauss for 62.Chettry received fine support from A Gupta (21) and R Shrestha (26) before Nepal were all out for 164 off 50 overs.Namibia’s best bowlers were LP van der Westhuizen (2/17), Morne Engelbrecht (2/28) and Keady Strauss (2/37).POOR START FOR NAMIBIA Namibia got off to a bad start as Raymond van Schoor was dismissed for a duck, Claude Bouwer for one and captain Dawid Botha for 5 to leave Namibia reeling at 29/3.But Sean Silver and LP van der Westhuizen rebuilt the innings with a fine partnership of 84 runs before Silver was out for 41.Van der Westhuizen top scored with 65, while Ewald Steenkamp added 11 and Pikkie Ya France 10 as Namibia seemed to be heading for victory.With five overs remaining they just needed 14 runs for victory but failed as Nepal turned on the pressure.Elandre Oosthuizen was run out for seven as he attempted a second run, while Engelbrecht was bowled for seven to give Nepal a three-run victory.Namibian coach Louis Vorster said his boys faltered towards the end when victory seemed to be on their side.”My boys played some bad and the run outs were costly”, said Vorster.Namibia have now lost all three their matches to date after earlier defeats to Australia and Sri Lanka.- www.namibiasport.com.na —- Marathon championship in Swakopmund The 2008 Rossing National Marathon Championship slated for Swakopmund this Saturday will see new champions being crowned, since the 2007 champions Simon Shigwedha and Beata Naigambo will not be participating.Shigwedha is said to be suffering from a stomach virus while Naigambo, who won the 2008 South African Championship two weeks ago, will run in the 10km event.Naigambo, who also won the women’s race in 2005, told Nampa on enquiry yesterday that she will use the 10km event as training for an international marathon race in April this year.She said marathon runners need at least two months to recover from a 42km race that is why she wants to give her body time to get back all its energy.Naigambo also scraped two minutes off her personal best time, improving from two hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds to 2:38.44sec.The Namibia Defence Force (NDF) for whom Shigwedha runs, will send 14 runners to the Swakopmund race that also acts as a qualifier for the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town on March 22 as well as the Comrades Marathon in Durban in June this year.Veteran runner Lucketz Swartbooi still holds the championship record time of 2:11.23 clocked in 1992.Swartbooi also won the championship in 1999.Four-time champion David Salamo is also expected to run after recovering from a car accident in 2007.Salamo won in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006.The race will start at the Palm Beach at 07h00.Registration is from at 18h00 until 21h00 tonight and at 06h00 tomorrow below Café Anton in Swakopmund.The entry fee for the marathon is N$30 and for the 10km event N$20.A 5km Charity Walk for the Cancer Association of Namibia will also take place.- Nampa