Namibia Cricket Year Review

by Helge Schütz

Craig Williams in action for Namibia.

Big strides in SA but slide abroad

Namibian cricket made big strides in the South African provincial competitions but found the going tough on the international scene over the past year.

After years of struggling in the South African domestic competitions, Namibia made history this year when they reached the final of the CSA Provincial One Day Challenge for the first time.

Namibia finished on top of Pool B with six wins out of its 10 group matches and took on the Pool A winners, Northerns in the final, before losing by seven wickets.

In the final Namibia scored a competitive 245 off their 50 overs with Craig Williams scoring 57, but Northerns easily reached the target for the loss of only three wickets to complete a comprehensive victory.

Namibian opening batsman Stephen Baard was the third highest run scorer in the competition with 392 runs at an average of 39,20 and a top score of 93, while Jan Frylinck was the third highest wicket taker with 17 wickets at an average of 18,29.

Namibia achieved another first when they qualified for the knockout stages of the Africa T20 Cup for the first time after winning all three their group matches in Benoni at the end of August. They beat WP by eight wickets, Easterns by seven wickets, and SWD by six wickets.

Their run however came to an end in the semifinals when they lost by 10 wickets to Free State.

Namibia struggled in the longer format of the game and finished bottom of the log in the Sunfoil 3-Day Cup competition.

They played 10 matches, losing six, drawing three and winning only one match, against SWD.

This season though, Namibia has been in brilliant form, winning its first four matches to top the log on 90,68 points.

Kwazulu Natal, the only other team to have won their opening four matches are second on 86,74 points, while North West are a distant third on 49,40 points.

Craig Williams has been Namibia's top batsman so far, lying fourth overall in the rankings with 472 runs at an average of 78,66 and a top score of 184, while Bernard Scholtz is lying third amongst the bowlers with 20 wickets at an average of 18,65.

Namibia are also well placed in this season's CSA One Day Challenge, lying fourth on the log with two wins and two defeats to date.

Namibia's form in the ICC international competitions has, however, been disappointing.

In the four-day Intercontinental Cup Namibia finished bottom of the log after winning only one of their seven matches. That was in their opening match when they beat Hong Kong by 114 runs, but since then they lost to Ireland, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, UAE and the Netherlands while they drew against Scotland.

Afghanistan, who won the competition with 121 points, and second-placed Ireland (109 points) have since been granted ICC Full Member status and are due to start playing Test cricket in 2018.

Namibia also finished last in the ICC World Cricket League Championship 50-over competition after winning just three of its 14 matches.

The Netherlands, who won the competition, have been promoted as the 13th nation to the inaugural ODI League, while the top four teams (The Netherlands, Scotland, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea) will compete in the final ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier that will be played in Zimbabwe in March 2018.

Namibia will host the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 in February 2018 where Namibia, Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Canada and Oman will battle it out for the final two ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier spots in Zimbabwe.

Namibia's national u19 team has been hard at work preparing for the ICC u19 Cricket World Cup which takes place in New Zealand from 13 January to 3 February 2018.

They played a Tri-Nations Tournament against South Africa and England u19 at the beginning of December but lost all their matches.

Women's cricket in Namibia is also making steady progress after Namibia hosted a successful ICC World Women's T20 Qualifier in Windhoek during September.

The tournament was won by Uganda who beat Zimbabwe by three wickets in the final, while Kenya came third, Namibia fourth and Tanzania fifth.