Eagles in fine form ahead of Netherlands tour 

The Namibian Eagles are in fine form ahead of next week’s tour to the Netherlands after they completed a third successive victory against Vidarbha on Monday. 

That six-wicket win against the reigning Vijay Hazare Trophy champions gave them an unbeatable lead in the five-match series, and provides the perfect preparation for next week’s crucial European tour, when Namibia will take on the Netherlands and Nepal in the World Cricket League Division 2 series. 

On Monday, Vidarbha amassed 296 for nine wickets off their 50 overs with Rathod Yash scoring 71 and Kadam Yash 50, while Nicol Loftie-Eaton was the pick of Namibia’s bowlers, taking four wickets for 18 runs. 

In reply, Namibia lost two early wickets with Michael van Lingen dismissed for seven and Alexander Volschenk for four, but Jan Frylinck and Louren Steenkamp put them in charge with a century partnership. 

They put on 138 runs before Steenkamp was dismissed for 73, while Frylinck went on to reach his century, eventually being run out for 103 off 119 balls (7×4, 4×6). 

Loftie-Eaton and Zane Green continued the onslaught with an unbroken 92-run partnership as Namibia comfortably reached the target with 10 balls to spare. 

Loftie Eaton remained not out on 66 to win the man of the match award, while Green remained not out on 34. 

Namibia coach Craig Williams said their preparations are well on track. 

“I think it’s gone well for our senior group – we got all the guys together, Louren (Steenkamp) joined us from Ireland and weve got Jan (Frylinck) and Michael (van Lingen) back so it just shows what we can do when we get all our guys together and I’m very happy at this stage. Everything we are trying to achieve we’ve managed so far on this tour,” he said, adding that Vidarbha are tough opponents. 

“They are an Indian first class cricket team so they are all professional cricket players and they won the Ranji trophy a few times, so they are a good team and a professional outfit. I just think we outplayed them in certain phases of the game, but if you give them half a chance they will sort you out so we had to play our best cricket to beat them,” he said. 

Loftie-Eaton’s hard work pays off 

There have been solid contributions from several members of the squad, but none more so than Loftie-Eaton who has shone with both bat and ball. He is currently the top wicket taker in the seriers with seven wickets and the fourth highest run scorer with 129 runs and Williams said his hard work is bearing fruit. 

“Nicol has won two man of the match awards out of three, he has contributed with both bat and ball, and he has fielded well. We’ve been helping him get his fitness back to where it was last year, so we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into him and it’s nice to see that he is repaying that,” he said. 

With the series against Vidarbha now wrapped up, Williams said they will continue to rotate their squad for the final two matches, today and on Friday. 

“We’ve got a rotation system going at the moment because we have to manage our bowlers’ loads and next week Wednesday we have our first warm-up game in Holland. Michael has also gone back to the coast and Louren has gone back to Ireland, so there will be good opportunities for other guys in the squad to hopefully maintain these high standards. In our last game we rested Ruben (Trumpelmann), JJ (Smit) and Gerhard (Erasmus) so it was quite an incredible victory, while resting the majority of our senior players,” he said. 

Williams said they leave on Sunday for the Netherlands tour and will play two warm-up matches against the Netherlands A next Wednesday and Friday before their series starts.

“We are in a good place at the moment – we don’t have any injuries, we’ve got a lot of competition for places in the squad, and I’d say we’ve probably had our toughest selection meetings to select the final 15-man squad for the Netherlands tour. There are about 25 players now who are pushing for places so we are in a very good position, but we need to turn that into results on the field,” he said. 

The Namibian squad that has been selected for the Netherlands tour is as follows:

Gerhard Erasmus (captain), Malan Kruger, Jan Frylinck, Michael van Lingen, Louren Steenkamp, Alexander Volschenk, Nicol Loftie-Eaton, JJ Smit, Zane Green, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, JC Balt, Max Heingo, Jack Brassell, Waldo Smith. 

Dylan Leicher is a travelling reserve, while the non-travelling reserves are Junior Tanyaanda, Ben Shikongo, Tim Short, Zacheo Janse van Vuuren and WP Myburgh. 

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