Host’s Namibia huffed and puffed to a hard-fought 3-wicket win over Papua New Guinea in the opening round match in the ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 2 match at Wanderer’s, Windhoek.
In a low-scoring affair, bowlers from both the camps had a field day as the Namibian bowlers bowled out PNG for a paltry 118, before PNG bowlers also performed well to claim 7 wickets, but had too little on the board to defend. The fact that PNG’s Chad Soper was their highest run-scorer with 36 runs from 79 deliveries speaks volumes of how well the Namibian bowlers performed to restrict the PNG batting line-up after putting them in to bat first on the Wanderer’s wicket.
https://youtu.be/yVM7QpJzwQw
Jan Frylinck, JJ Smit and Criag Williams picked up 3-wickets each, while Bernard Scholtz kept things real tight to lend good support to the pace bowlers. Charles Amini was the pick of the PNG bowlers on display with a 3-wicket haul of his own.
PNG had Namibia in a real spot of bother at one point in time when they brought them down to 88/7, but a 32 runs partnership for the 8th wicket between Jan Frylinck and JJ Smit sealed the deal for the host’s, as they managed to claim the crucial 2 points to start their campaign in WCL Division 2 with a win.
Brief Scores:
Papua New Guinea 118 all out in 42.1 overs (Chad Soper 36, Sese Bau 17, Jan Frylinck 3/16, Craig Williams 3/25, JJ Smit 3/34) lost to Namibia 120/7 in 30.3 overs (Jan Frylinck 23 n.o, JJ Smit 19 n.o, Jean-Pierre Kotze 19, Charles Amini 3/46, Nosaina Pokana 1/14, Damien Ravu 1/22) by 3 wickets
