… Scotland see off Kenya
NAMIBIA began their race to qualify for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in style by defeating number-two ranked side Ireland by four runs at the ICC Global Cricket Academy.
All-rounder Louis van der Westhuizen scored 34 runs to help Namibia reach 160-8 then claimed two for 37 to restrict Ireland to 156-9, which not only earned a famous victory for his side but also meant he walked away with the man-of-the-match award. van der Westhuizen said: “It went really well. I saw the ball clearly and the team had a really good vibe. It always helps when the team spirits are up and playing Ireland is always a really big game. It is good to play the biggest team on the opening day and it is great to get a win against them.
“Namibia can be quite an unpredictable team, but when it comes off then we can beat anybody. The biggest challenge for us will be to be consistent throughout the event and keep up our performance levels.”
Raymond van Schoor (31), Sarel Burger (21) and Craig Williams (19) also scored decent runs for Namibia while Paul Stirling and George Dockrell equally shared six wickets between them while conceding 20 and 26 runs respectively.
Ireland slumped to 65-5 in the 11th over before Gary Wilson (49) and John Mooney (38) put their side back on track by adding 71 runs for the sixth wicket off 44 balls.
In the last over, Ireland needed 18 runs to win and ended up four runs short of Namibia’s total.
Ireland coach Phil Simmons said: “I don’t think we underestimated Namibia today, we don’t underestimate any team we face. We didn’t start well in the game and allowed Namibia to score too many runs in the first six overs which proved to be a deciding factor and therefore we struggled.
“Everything needs to improve from tomorrow as we are not where we need to be in every aspect of our game for this event and that improvement has to start now.
“I think the only pleasing part of the day for us was the partnership between John Mooney and Gary Wilson which got us back into the game but we didn’t take the chances we needed to in order to finish things off.”
Meanwhile, in Group A, defending champions Afghanistan beat Papua New Guinea by six wickets after a fine half-century by Mohammad Nabi, Nepal’s Paras Khadka led his side to victory over Hong Kong by 28 runs, the Netherlands beat Canada by 42 runs and Bermuda lost to Denmark by seven wickets after a Freddie Klokker half-century.
In Group B’s other fixtures Michael Di Venuto and Peter Petricola helped Italy to crush Oman by nine wickets, Uganda won by four wickets against the USA and Kenya suffered their first defeat, losing to Scotland by 14 runs.
Scores in brief:
Group A
Papua New Guinea 112-6, 20 overs (Jason Kila 28; Dawlat Zadran 2-20)
Afghanistan 113-4, 19 overs (Mohammad Nabi 52 not out; Rarua Dikana 2-23)
Afghanistan won by six wickets.
Netherlands 134-6, 20 overs (Tom Cooper 29, Alexei Kervezee 29, Mudassar Bukhari 28 n.o.; Harvir Baidwan 3-29)
Canada 93 all out, 16.4 overs (Jimmy Hansra 30; Mudassar Bukhari 2-22, Pieter Seelaar 3-16)
Netherlands won by 43 runs.
Nepal 130-6, 20 overs (Paras Khadka 68, Gyanendra Malla 26; Muniro Dar 3-15)
Hong Kong 100-9, 20 overs (Nizakat Khan 31; Chandra Sawad 4-23, Shakti Gauchan 2-11, Basant Regmi 2-18) Nepal won by 30 runs.
Bermuda 116-7, 20 overs (Dion Stovell 56, David Hemp 36; Sair Anjum 2-15)
Denmark 117-3, 19.1 overs (Freddie Klokker 50, Rizwan Mahmood 47 n.o.; Dion Stovell 1-20)
Denmark won by seven wickets.
Group B
Namibia 160-8, 20 overs (Louis van der Westhuizen 34, Raymond van Schoor 31, Sarel Burger 21, Craig Williams 19; Paul Stirling 3-20, George Dockrell 3-20, Alex Cusack 2-26)
Ireland 156-9 (Gary Wilson 49, John Mooney 38, Kevin O’Brien 20; Louis van der Westhuizen 2-37)
Namibia won by four runs.
Oman 89-9, 20 overs (Sultan Ahmed 16, Carl Sandri 4-9, Gareth Berg 2-22)
Italy 90-1, 14 overs (Michael De Venuto 42 not out; Peter Petricola 39 not out)
Italy won by nine wickets.
USA 123-8 in 20 overs (Sushil Nadkarni 38, Adil Bhatti 21; Jonathan Sebanja 2-32, Roger Mukasa 2-14)
Uganda 124-6 in 19.2 overs (Frank Nsubunga 30, Davis Arinaitwe 27 n.o.; Muhammad Ghous 2-16)
Uganda won by four wickets.
Scotland 178-7, 20 overs (Calum MacLeod 55, Kyle Coetzer 46; James Ngoche 2-31)
Kenya 164 all out, 20 overs (Collins Obuya 50; Gordon Drummond 3-50, Majid Haq 2-32)
Scotland won by 14 runs. (Eurosport)