Namibia made a great comeback against Boland to force a draw in their CSA Three-Day cricket match on Saturday.
After Boland had declared at their first innings at a massive 472 for five wickets they seemed to be heading for a comfortable victory when they bowled Namibia out for 216 in their first innings.
But in the follow-on innings the home side dug deep and led by Christi Viljoen, who scored a brilliant 182 not out, they reached a formidable total of 451 not out, to set Boland a victory target of 196 runs.
There was not enough time left and the match was called off for a draw with Boland on 19 for two wickets in their second innings.
In Boland’s massive first innings they had three centurions with Letlotlo Sesele leading the way with 177 off 230 balls, while Uwe Birkenstock scored 104 and Keegan Petersen 105 not out.
Namibia’s bowlers all struggled by Brandon Viret was the most successful, taking three wickets for 96 runs.
Namibia didn’t fare too well in their first innings as their top order batsmen all failed and they crashed to 82 for six wickets.
The lower order however came to the rescue with Christi Viljoen and Brandon Viret putting on 75 runs for the eighth wicket. Both were out for 42 runs while Shalako Groenewald added 28 and JJ Smit 31.
Forced to follow on, Namibia fared much better in their second innings.
Xander Pitchers (18) and Pikky Ya France (10) went quite early, but Stephen Baard (64), JP Kotze (62) and Michau du Preez (60) all contributed towards a sizable total.
Christi Viljoen then took centre stage with a great innings as he put on 110 runs with Du Preez for the sixth wicket and 68 runs with JJ Smit for the ninth wicket.
Viljoen reached his century and by the time the whole team was out for 451 he was still standing on 182 which came off 180 balls and included 22 fours and five sixes.
Namibia had an early breakthrough in Boland’s second innings as Viret bowled Sesele for a duck, while Viljoen bowled Tiaan Cloete for 12 but there was not enough time left and the match was called off for a draw with Boland on 19 for two wickets.
Boland obtained 10,1 bonus points and Namibia 3,32 bonus points.
