Namibia were playing their first ODI match since 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup and Oman were making their ODI debut for the very first time in the final of the ICC World Cricket League (WCL) Division 2. A week of competitive cricket played out at the three venues across Windhoek finally came down to how the host’s will perform against the same team, which beat them during the group stage phase.
In the end, not only Namibia put it across Oman in style, but also finally won the WCL Division 2 tournament at home to finish the final ever edition of WCL events in emphatic fashion. Namibia, batting first, put up 226/7 in their 50 overs before bowling out Oman for only 81 runs (their 2nd consecutive below 100 score in 2 days and loss by the same margin of runs in both the games!!) in 29 overs to spark off the celebrations as Namibia announced their arrival on the ODI scene once again with a win.
Karl Birkenstock scored the first half-century for Namibia in ODI re-admission since Bryan Murgatroyd’s effort against the Netherlands in 2003 ICC World Cup. There were notable contributions down the order from JJ Smit (29) and Zane Green (38) and small cameos from Jan Frylinck and Christi Viljoen took them to their eventual score. Fayyaz Butt and Aqib Ilyas picked up 2 wickets, while Zeeshan Maqsood and Khawar Ali picked up a wicket apiece.
Among the bowlers, Jan Frylinck picked up a 5-fer as he and JJ Smit combined well together once again as they rattled the Oman batting line-up with early inroads as Oman never recovered during the entire duration of their innings and got bowled out for 81. Suraj Kumar was the highest run-scorer in the carnage around him with 27 runs, while three more players managed to get into the double-figure scores.
JJ Smit was declared the player of the series in WCL Division 2 for his all-round contributions for Namibia throughout the competition.
Stephen Baard (264 runs in 6 matches), JJ Smit (221 runs in 6 matches) and JP Kotze (206 runs in 6 matches) were the top run-scorer’s for Namibia during the tournament, while Jan Frylinck (14 wickets in 6 matches) and JJ Smit (13 wickets in 6 matches) were the top wicket-taker’s for Namibia. For Oman, Fayyaz Butt (16 wickets in 6 matches) and Bilal Khan (9 wickets in 6 matches) were the top wicket-taker’s, while Aqib Ilyas (168 runs in 6 matches), Zeeshan Maqsood (163 runs in 5 matches) and Suraj Kumar (149 runs in 6 matches) were the top run-scorer’s for them in the tournament.
2019 ICC WCL Division 2 Schedule
20th Apr 2019: PNG vs Namibia (Scorecard) ; Canada vs Hong Kong (Scorecard) ; USA vs Oman (Scorecard)
21st Apr 2019: Namibia vs USA (Scorecard) ; Oman vs Canada (Scorecard) ; Hong Kong vs PNG (Scorecard)
23rd Apr 2019: PNG vs USA (Scorecard) ; Canada vs Namibia (Scorecard) ; Oman vs Hong Kong (Scorecard)
24th Apr 2019: Canada vs PNG (Scorecard) ; Namibia vs Oman (Scorecard) ; USA vs Hong Kong (Scorecard)
26th Apr 2019: Hong Kong vs Namibia (Scorecard) ; PNG vs Oman (Scorecard) ; USA vs Canada (Scorecard)
27th Apr 2019: Canada vs Hong Kong (Scorecard) ; Oman vs Namibia (Scorecard) ; USA vs PNG (Scorecard)
