Spotlight on Zim Under-19 batsmen
THE national Under-19 cricket team’s batsmen, especially the top order, will be under pressure to deliver when they face Namibia in an International Cricket Council World Cup Group C eliminator in Kimberley this morning.
The match starts at 10am (Zimbabwe time). Both teams have zero points from two defeats against Australia and Sri Lanka and whoever wins today’s match will progress to the Super Six stage.
Australia and Sri Lanka are already through but will face off in Bloemfontein tomorrow to decide who wins the group and carry a maximum four points to the Super Six stage.
It has been a disappointing opening two matches for both teams’ batsmen as they failed to reach 100 runs in the two innings so far.
However, both sides’ bowlers have done well by dismissing Sri Lanka at taking at least six Australian wickets.
The statistics leave Zimbabwe and Namibia with 50-50 chances going into today’s match with the batsmen likely to decide the winner.
In the opening match against Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe were bowled out for 89 in 21.1 overs and captain Mathew Schonken was the topscorer with 27 off 19 balls while there were seven batsmen who could not reach double figures.
In Thursday’s match against Australia, Zimbabwe were bowled out for 71 in 23.2 overs while chasing 297 to win and there were seven ducks and nine scores of less than 10 runs. Ronak Patel was the topscorer with 36 runs from 48 balls while bowler Brandon Sunguro had the second highest contribution of 12.
For Namibia they were dismissed for 56 in 27 overs chasing 134 against Sri Lanka and the highest contribution of 18 came from their number 10 batsman, Peter Daniel Blignaut while number nine batsman Hanro Badenhorst had the second highest contribution of 11.
In their opener against Australia, Namibia batted first and were all out for 91 in 33.1 overs before losing the match by four wickets having taken six Aussie wickets by the time they scored the winning runs off the penultimate ball of the 20th over.
The Zimbabwe bowlers claimed 17 wickets in their two matches against Sri Lanka and Australia, which is an impressive performance.
While they started very well against Sri Lanka, reducing them to 66/4 in the 26th over and then 204 all out in 48.3 overs, they had a tough start against Australia before a late fightback. The Aussies were 189/2 in the 37th over and destined for a score of at least 320-330 but the Zimbabwe bowlers did very well to limit the damage to 296/7 at the end of 50 overs.
The Namibia bowlers claimed 16 wickets against Sri Lanka and Australia and will be dangerous against a Zimbabwe batting line-up seemingly lacking confidence at the big stage.