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Namibia complete full haul in PNG


NAMIBIA beat Papua New Guinea by 61 runs in their final Cricket World Cup League 2 match in Port Moresby yesterday to complete a highly successful tour.

The Richelieu Eagles won all four their matches in PNG, beating the home side twice and the USA twice, and their haul of a maximum eight points has seen them closing in on the leaders on the log.

They remain fifth, but with several matches in hand on the leaders they can move further up, especially with two home series coming up in November and December.

They will once again host PNG and USA in Windhoek from 17 to 26 November, while they will host Scotland and Nepal from 30 November to 9 December.

Yesterday, captain Gerhard Erasmus played a starring role with both bat and ball in Namibia’s victory.

After electing to bat, Namibia lost Divan La Cock early on for one, but Lohan Louwrens and Stephan Baard revived the innings with a 34-run partnership.

The momentum, however, swung PNG’s way as they struck with three wickets in quick succession (Louwrens 34, Michael van Lingen 0, Baard 13), leaving Namibia struggling at 4/59 after 17 overs.

Erasmus and Nicol-Loftie Eaton launched a fine revival, putting on 60 runs for the fifth wicket, before the latter was dismissed for 35.

Erasmus was eventually run out for 49, while Zane Green added 31 not out further down the order, as Namibia recovered to reach a competitive 214/8 off their 50 overs.

In PNG’s innings, Ruben Trumpelmann gave Namibia a great start when he dismissed Tony Ura for a second-ball duck, but Lega Siaka and Charles Amini revived PNG’s hopes with a 47-run partnership, before Jan Frylinck got the breakthrough, dismissing Amini for 22.

Siaka went on to score 38 before being dismissed by Bernard Scholtz, while Hiri Hiri added 29, but Namibia’s bowlers kept up the pressure with regular wickets to dismiss the whole team for 153 off 43,1 overs.

Erasmus was Namibia’s best bowler, taking three wickets for 31 runs off 10 overs, while Trumpelmann took 2/22, Frylinck 2/37 and Tangeni Lungameni 2/23.

Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn said it was a great performance in difficult conditions.

“It was a fantastic tour – it was probably one of the hardest tours that I have experienced as a coach and to see how the guys fought was incredible. Until the last wicket today, it was just unbelievable and it just proves how strong our culture is and how much it means to these players,” he said.

“We won eight valuable points on the Cricket World League 2 log, and to get eight points away from home in this environment is amazing,” he added.

The team now returns to Namibia for a few days before they fly out to Australia to start preparing for next month’s T20 World Cup.

“We will have three or four days at home and then its back to Australia for our World Cup preparations that start in Melbourne on the 29th of September, so we are trying to manage a couple of niggles and some mentally fatigued players, but we are just grateful for such a successful tour,” he said.

“We now have to reset for the T20 World Cup. We are in a group where we can beat the Netherlands and we can beat the UAE – that’s our aim, and we are also taking a lot of momentum with us into the World Cup, especially after this tour,” he added.





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