ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier : Namibia back after 16 years, fourth World T20 for Netherland

Oct 30, 2019

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier : Namibia back after 16 years, fourth World T20 for Netherland Image

Namibia back playing at the world stage after 16 years as Netherlands also made it to their fourth World T20 appearance. 

UAE v Netherlands

Netherlands had an easy victory in the first qualifier as their bowlers ran through the United Arab Emirates top order in first five over. UAE was 3/3 in first two overs and soon were five down for just nine runs as Paul van Meekeren and Brandon Glover took two wickets. UAE recovered somewhat as their captain Ahmed Raza scored 22 and Waheed Ahmed scored 19. But they lost too many wickets and could not accelerate at the end to finish with 80/9 in their 20 overs. Glover finished with 4/12. 

Netherlands took their time and chased down the modest target in 15.1 overs with Ben Cooper guiding the chase with a 53-ball 41. He added 51 runs with Colin Ackermann and unbeaten 25 runs with Ryan ten Doeschate to take his country to World T20.

Netherlands 81 for 2 (Cooper 41*, Zahoor 1-12) beat UAE 80 for 9 (Raza 22, Glover 4-12, van der Gugten 2-10, ven Meekeren 2-13) by eight wickets

Namibia v Oman

A brilliant 59 off 25 balls from JJ Smit helped Namibia to recover from a tricky 69/5. Oman bowlers had the upper hand in the first half of the innings and Namibia lost wickets at regular interval to reach 69/5 in the 13th over. Smith and Craig Williams then added 83 runs in 40 balls to take them to a respectable total. Smit hit three fours and five sixes in his 59 and Williams hit two fours and three sixes for his 45. For Oman, Bilal Khan ended with 4/19.

During the chase, Oman lost the wicket of Jatinder Singh on second ball. Khawar Ali was in great form and he added 57 runs with Aqib Ilyas in six overs till the latter was dismissed by Bernard Scholtz. This wicket triggered a collapse and Oman were soon 64 for the loss of four wicketsThey kept losing regular wickets and were bowled out for 107 as Scholtz finished with 3/14 and Gerhard Erasmus finished with 3/19 to ensure their participation in the World T20.

Namibia 161 for 7 (Smith 59, Williams 45, Khan 4-19) beat Oman 107 (Khawar 41, Scholtz 3-14, Erasmus 3-19) by 54 runs