Niël Terbllanché
AFTER starting off the 2019 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in Dubai tournament with two losses to the Netherlands and Papua New Guinea, Namibia’s cricket team is back in the runnings for the play-offs by thrashing Kenya by 87 runs for their third straight win in the tournament.
The Namibians won the toss and opted to bat. Stephan Baard and Gerhard Erasmus scored half-centuries at the front and back of the first innings before left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz produced the tournament’s best bowling by taking four wickets with 12 balls to decimate Kenya’s chase.
The Namibians scored 181 runs and sacrificed five batsmen in the process.
In the second innings Scholtz’ sterling work with the ball denied the Kenyans almost half the runs they needed to win.
By the first ball of the 18th over all the Kenyan batsmen could only muster 94 runs before the last man was sent walking.
A victory against Singapore in their final group match later today will guarantee Namibia one of the playoff spots in the tournament which starts on Sunday.
