Preview: Zimbabwe U19s v Namibia U19s

The second of the ICC U19 CWC Plate quarter-finals will see Zimbabwe take on Namibia at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln on Sunday 21 January. With Zimbabwe having secured one victory in the tournament and Namibia having lost in all of their games so far, the former will be more confident heading into this match.

Form guide

Zimbabwe began their tournament with a crushing defeat of Papua New Guinea, who they bowled out for 95 before reaching their victory target with 10 wickets and 36 overs to spare. Two defeats followed as they lost to Australia by seven wickets and to India by 10 wickets to leave them third in Group B.

Namibia have lost all three of their games so far in this competition, with defeats against Bangladesh, England and Canada. It was in that match against Canada where they came closest to a win, with wickets for Petrus Burger and Shaun Fouché.

Players to watch

**Eben van Wyk (Nam)**The leading run-scorer for Namibia so far. The middle-order batsman scored 55 against Bangladesh in a chase that was reduced to 20 overs using the DLS method. He also made a decent contribution against Canada where he made 32 from 40 balls.

**Wesley Madhevere (Zim)**Both the leading run-scorer and the leading wicket-taker for this team, and the only player to have made a fifty for Zimbabwe, Madhevere is the one to watch in this match. An opening batsman and a very useful off-spin bowler, he was superb in the win over PNG where he made 53* and took three wickets.

World Cup history

Zimbabwe have appeared at all 10 tournaments since their reintroduction in 1998, with a best finish of sixth in 2004. They finished 10th at the most recent competition. Some notable individual performers include Mluleki Nkala in the 1998 edition, who was the joint-leading wicket-taker, Tinashe Panyangara, who took the second-best figures of the tournament’s history in 2004 – 6/31 as Australia were bundled out for 73 – and Tatenda Taibu, who was Player of the Series in 2002 for his run-scoring, wicket-taking, and, when he wasn’t bowling, wicket-keeping feats.

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

There have been five previous meetings between these teams at U19 level, all of which have been won by the Zimbabweans. The first of those, in January 2000, featured a host of Zimbabwe players that went on to play for their country in senior internationals – Sean Ervine, Hamilton Masakadza and Tatenda Taibu all played in that match.

Forecast

It is going to be 23°C with a bit of cloud cover in Lincoln. It will be muggy, with 78% humidity and there is a 20% chance that there will be some rain.****

Squads

**Zimbabwe:**Liam Roche (c), Gregory Dollar, Donald Mlambo, Tanunurwa Makoni, Jayden Schadendorf, Milton Shumba, Alistair Frost, Dion Myers, Nkosilatu Nunu, Jonathan Conolly, Wesley Madhevere, Kieran Robinson, Robert Chimhinya, Tinashe Nenhunzi, Taun Harrison

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