Senior national cricket team coach Pierre de Bruyn has conceded that their defeat at the 2023 International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier play-off was not an ideal start.
The Richelieu Eagles lost their first match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers against the United States of America (USA) on Sunday after their opponents eased to an 81-run win.
The 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier play-off is underway at the Wanderers and Trustco United Sports Fields from 26 March to 05 April 2023.
Six countries are competing for the final two spots at the 2023 World Cup scheduled for June and July 2023 in Zimbabwe.
In an interview after the match, De Bruyn said they were aiming for a 90 per cent winning rate because they had good patches.
“We started well and at 106 runs with six wickets, we thought that was a golden opportunity for us to restrict the USA to at least 170 runs. But as a team, we are limited with our bowling attacks and we couldn’t ask for more,” said the coach, who added that he was happy with the performance of his bowlers on the day.
De Bruyn said going forward they will need to reassess where they are as a team.
On Sunday, Namibia won the toss and chose to bowl. USA had a score of 234 runs which the Namibians had to chase, but they suffered a batting collapse on the day of the play-off with the shocking defeat to the USA.
The Richelieu Eagles started the match well with their bowlers rattling USA early on in their innings when pacer Ben Shikongo dismissed Steven Taylor and Monank Patel in the second over.
The USA’s Gajanand Singh (53 runs), Jessy Singh (33) and Nosthush Kenjige (43) helped them cross 200 overs, which later became too much for the Namibian team. USA reached 231 runs courtesy of an erratic 25-run final over from Shikongo.
When batting, Namibia lost Nikolaas Davin and Michael van Lingen in the second over off the bowling of Ali Khan, and at 115 runs with four wickets, Namibia collapsed as they lost their next six wickets for merely 35 runs.
Namibia’s next match at the championship will be against Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, at the United Sports Field.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency