Preview: England U19s v Namibia U19s
These two teams should know each other pretty well, having faced off twice in a Tri-Series in South Africa last month, but when they face off in Queenstown on January 15, the stakes will be a lot higher.
Namibia will know, having lost their first game to Bangladesh, that a second defeat could end their hopes of making the quarter-finals, as they did in 2016. England, meanwhile, having seen the Tiger’s comprehensive opening game win, will want to put down a marker of their own.
Form guide
England lost all the series they played in 2017, but it wasn’t quite as simple as that. They competed well in their two five-match series against India, a fact which the eventual 8-1 combined scoreline doesn’t suggest – among those were losses by one run, one wicket and a tie. And in a Tri-Series involving forthcoming opponents Namibia and South Africa they won all four games in the group stage comfortably, before narrowly missing out to the Proteas in the final by three wickets in a last-over finish.
Namibia at least come into this tournament with lots of game-time behind them – 2017 contained tours to Zimbabwe, Scotland and South Africa. But they lost every game they played against international opposition on those tours, and having lost heavily against Bangladesh to start this tournament, their hopes of emulating their seventh-place finish in 2016 may already be fading.
Players to watch
Eben van Wyk (Nam)
When Bangladesh smashed 190/4 in a rain-reduced 20-overs-a-side game against Namibia and reduced their opponents to 12/4, an almighty thrashing seemed to be on the cards. That it didn’t materialise was thanks to Namibia’s No.4 Eben van Wyk, who anchored the innings and displayed no little fluency in making a 52-ball 55. His form of late has been good – he has six scores above 40 in his last 10 innings for Namibia, including a 43 against England. But with a high score of 69 in that period, match-defining innings have eluded him. Van Wyk making a big score might be Namibia’s best chance of competing in this game.
Fin Trenouth (Eng)
The big contributions in England’s warm-up victory came from Will Jacks and captain Harry Brook, who both made hundreds. But the most eye-catching came from Somerset’s Fin Trenouth (pictured above), who smashed five sixes in a 41-ball 73. That, added to a triple hundred in the Under 17 ECB County Championship which came at better than a run a ball, paints a picture of a player who can hit big and strike fear into any team. Trenouth, however, is determined to show this tournament that he can be more than just that, and this is his first chance on the biggest stage to do so.
World Cup history
England are one of six teams to have appeared at every ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup, and won the first ‘rebooted’ ICC tournament in 1998, their squad containing five future internationals including Graeme Swann. But they haven’t made the final since then, falling four times at the semi-final stage. There is a good omen for England, however, which is that when England did win the World Cup, their group contained Namibia and Bangladesh, as it does this time.
Namibia are taking part in the tournament for the ninth time, also having made their bow at the competition in 1998, when they finished 15th. They had never placed in the top 10 until 2016, when they pulled off one of the shocks of the tournament by beating neighbours South Africa which helped them finish second in Group A behind Bangladesh. Defeat by India in the quarter-final, followed by victory against Nepal saw them claim seventh place and qualify automatically for this year’s competition as the highest-finishing associate team at the tournament.
Head to head
Besides those Tri-Series clashes, England and Namibia have faced off twice in the ICC U19 CWC, with England winning both of those. The first, during England’s successful 1998 campaign, was a close-run three-wicket win. The second, a fifth-place play-off semi-final in 2016, was a thrashing, England triumphant by 203 runs.
Forecast
There could be one or two clouds around, and players might well be seeking the shade with temperatures in the mid-to-high twenties expected throughout the day.
Squads
**England:**Harry Brooks (c), Ethan Bamber, Liam Banks, Tom Banton, Jack Davies, Adam Finch, Luke Hollman, Will Jacks, Dillon Pennington, Savin Perera, Tom Scriven, Prem Sisodiya, Fin Trenouth, Roman Walker, Euan Woods
**Namibia:**Lohan Louwrens (c), Henry Brink, Petrus Burger, Jan-Izak de Villiers, Shaun Fouche, Jurgen Linde, Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Gerhard Lottering, Erich van Mollendorf, Dewald Nell, Mauritius Ngupita, Ben Shikongo, Floris Steenkamp, Ramon Wilmot, Eben van Wyk