United Arab Emirates registered their 2nd win in 6 games played so far in their ICC CWC League 2 campaign, as they defeated Namibia in a thrilling contest in round 4 of the Championship, being played at Al Amerat in Oman.
Batting first, UAE managed to post 222/9 in their 50 overs, thanks to an unbeaten knock of 59 runs from Rohan Mustafa, who guided the team to their eventual total, after Namibia had pegged them at 137/7 at one stage during their innings. Karthik Meiyappan, who has come up to the senior ranks through UAE’s age-group programme, was the major reason UAE kept themselves in the hunt throughout the game, as he picked up 4/37 in his spell.
Namibia were left ruing their chances as they let go of their grasp in the game both times during their bowling and batting innings, and could not close the game when they needed 18 of their final 2 overs to win the match. Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus top-scored for the team with a crafty knock of 56 runs, but wickets kept falling at crucial junctures for Namibia. A 7th wicket partnership of 38 runs between Jan Frylinck and Karl Birkenstock was broken in the 50th over of their chase, with both the players getting out in the same over to lose the contest by only 8 runs in the end.
Oman and Namibia will not meet in the 3rd game of round 4 fixtures on 8th Jan 2020, with the host’s looking forward to register back-to-back wins, while Namibia will themselves look to win the game and join Oman on equal points at 3rd place in the overall League 2 points table.
Brief Scores
20th Match: United Arab Emirates 222/9 in 50 overs (Rohan Mustafa 59 n.o, Muhammad Usman 37, Darius D’Silva 31, Chirag Suri 22, Bernard Scholtz 2/34, Ben Shikongo 2/41, JJ Smit 2/46, Jan Frylinck 1/33) beat Namibia 214/8 in 50 overs (Gerhard Erasmus 56, Stephan Baard 32, Jan Frylinck 31, Jean-Pierre Kotze 27, Karthik Meiyappan 4/37, Junaid Siddique 1/48, Rohan Mustafa 1/52) by 8 runs
