Minnows Namibia stun South Africa

Good Morning! Hello and Welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Match 22 of the 2016 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup between Group c teams West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Namibia Under-19s reached the quarter-finals with a sensational upset, pulling off a two-wicket win over defending champions South Africa Under-19s in Cox’s Bazar while West Indies Under-19 won by a 262-run margin against Fiji Under-19s, who ended the group stage without once having crossed the 100 mark. With the win India topped the chart with six points and net run rate of +2.581 followed by Nepal at four points, with run rate +0.032.

After enduring a tough build-up to the global youth showpiece, the Zimbabwe team would be eyeing a positive start to their campaign ahead of tough group matches against England on Sunday and the West Indies two days later.

Namibia’s unheralded cricketers, who had beaten Scotland in their first match, kept their cool amid mounting tension to knock South Africa out.

The memorable win meant that Namibia, which finished 14th in the United Arab Emirates two years ago, will improve upon its best finish of 11th in Malaysia in 2008. Zimbabwe sailed through an easy win against Fiji by 7 wickets and 187 balls to spare. They now face Zimbabwe on Tuesday to determine the second qualifier from the group with the victor meeting Group B champion (Pakistan or Sri Lanka) in Fatullah on February 8.

South Africa somehow managed to see out their 50 overs thanks to captain Tony de Zorzi (18), Willem Ludick (42) and Lutho Sipamla (17). Jack Burnham then continued on and remained unbeaten at 106 runs.

Zimbabwe on the other hand will be buoyed by encouraging performances in the two official Under-19 World Cup warm-up matches they played in the run up to the tournament. Azeem Dar top-scored with 50 runs for Scotland, while Mohammad Saifuddin and Saleh Ahmed Shawon were the most successful Bangladeshi bowlers, picking three wickets each.

Zimbabwe were dismissed for 159 despite a heroic 91 from Jeremy Ives as Saqib Mahmood claimed 4/39 runs and Callum Taylor took 3/14.

The other Group C match saw West Indies defeat the Fijian team comfortably. Pope was also selected as player of the match for his all-round performance.