Scotland overcome Namibia by the barest of margins in U19 World Cup play-offs
Scotland were the victors in a closely-fought contest in Benoni in the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024 play-offs.
Scotland won by the barest of margins
Scotland v Namibia in Benoni
Toss: Scotland won the toss and elected to bat
Result: Scotland won by three runs
Namibia struck early with the ball, with Jack Brassell and Junior Kariata striking to remove Adi Hegde and Alec Price cheaply. This forced Jamie Dunk and Owen Gould, Scotland's most successful batters in the tournament, to come together and reconstruct the innings.
Despite losing Gould (35) after the duo had added 80, Dunk kept on from his end. He helped put another half-century stand with Uzair Ahmad as Scotland looked set for a competitive score. However, Dunk fell off the last ball of the 34th over to give Namibia an opening. He hit eight boundaries in his classy 76.
The Eagles regained control with the ball thereafter, conceding just 50 runs between overs 35-46. It took some special hitting from Bahadar Esakhiel, to help Scotland score 51 off the final four overs and reach a competitive total of 251/6. He remained unbeaten on 76, with four fours and six sixes to his name.
Bahadar Esakhiel's attacking fifty helped Scotland to a winning total
Ibrahim Faisal rocked Namibia early in their chase, sending back both the openers for a single-digit scores. Johannes Visagie and Zacheo van Vuuren began rebuilding watchfully and brought up Namibia's first-ever fifty-run stand of the tournament.
Visagie's half-century, brought up in the 27th over was also a first for the Eagles in this edition of the U19 World Cup. Visagie fell LBW to Adi Hegde as the required rate kept creeping north.
Namibia skipper Alex Volschenk arrived at number four to keep the Eagles' chase on track. Along with van Vuuren, he added 60 runs for the fourth wicket off 66 balls. Volschenk's cameo came to an end when the batter tried to swipe Qasim Khan over midwicket region but was brilliantly held by Faisal. He hit two sixes and a four in his 30.
Namibia's chase was brought back to life with an enterprising sixth-wicket stand between van Vuuren and Peter-Daniel Blignaut. The duo took the attack to the Scotland bowlers, and brought the equation down to 16 off six. However, Scotland managed to wrest back the initiative at the right moment. Despite conceding a four and five wides, Faisal's final over gave away 12, which meant a three-wicket win for the Scots.
Faisal finished with 3/58, whereas van Vuuren was Namibia's top-scorer with 86.