Eagles sweep to series win 

The FNB Namibian Eagles wrapped up the T20 Tri-Nations series with another commanding win and an unbeaten record on Tuesday.

Namibia beat Nigeria by 93 runs after scoring 220/5 and then restricting Nigeria to 127/9 to finish on top of the log on eight points, followed by Hong Kong on four and Nigeria on zero points.

Namibia’s upcoming youngsters once again played a major role in the victory with Alex Volschenk scoring 73 and Junior Taanyaanda 35, while captain Gerhard Erasmus added a quickfire 51.

Another upcoming player, JC Balt (22) then took the bowling accolades with four wickets for 20 runs, including a hat-trick.

Namibian players dominated the individual statistics, with Taanyanda the top scorer of the series with 165 runs at an average of 82.50, while he also had the most sixes along with Erasmus (13) as well as the most fours (13).

Jan Frylinck had the highest individual score of 110 while Erasmus had the highest strike rate of 201.33.

Balt took the most wickets (seven), while he also had the most economical figures (3.85). Ehsan Khan of Hong Kong had the best individual figures in a match, of four wickets for 16 runs.

Namibia coach Craig Williams was pleased with the series victory.

“It was good for us to get four wins, especially against Hong Kong, because they’ve been rebuilding with new coaching staff. We played Hong Kong probably seven or eight years ago and we actually came unstuck against them, so we’re quite happy to beat them twice,” he said afterwards.

“Nigeria is also trying to rebuild, so we played a younger team against them and it was good that some of our younger players also did well,” he said.

Taanyanda’s performance especially was an eye-opener as he is 18 years old but made a great international debut with scores of 74 not out, 56, and 35.

Williams said he was very happy with Taanyanda’s performances.

“Junior has been on our radar for quite a while and he joined us full time in January on our high-performance programme, where we provide housing and the guys get a salary, and they come and train with us full-time,” he said.

“I’m very happy for him, because he’s very coachable. He listens, he works hard, and he’s one of the strongest and fittest guys in the team. He’s highly committed,” he said.

“He got an opportunity in a T20 international and grabbed it with both hands. To get two 50s and a 30-odd and then to get the batter of the tournament award is just unbelievable. It’s another fairy tale for Namibian cricket,” he said.

OPENING FOR THE FIRST TIME

What made Taanyanda’s performance even more remarkable is the fact that he is not an opening batter for his club, CCD, and opened for the first time at senior level after being named as an opener in the national squad.

“I only opened at school level, but when I moved up to club cricket I started batting at number six or seven. I just got the news that I’ll open the batting while I was having lunch. I was shocked, but I made the most of the opportunity,” he said on Tuesday.

“It was a great experience to make my international debut for Namibia and I’m proud of my performance. I’m also very thankful for my teammates who welcomed me and supported me a lot,” he said.

Williams said he saw some special qualities in Taanyanda for the opening role.

“If you look at our middle order, its quite packed. We’ve got Gerhard Erasmus, JJ Smit, Zane Green, and Ruben Trumpelmann, so a lot of our senior guys are there in the middle, so opening the batting was where the opportunity lay for Junior.

“He’s also quite an attacking batter – he pulls the ball really well, so as a coaching group and a selection group we feel that’s where he best fits in and it obviously worked.

“We’ve identified him as a future opener in T20 cricket and maybe as an opener or middle order batter in 50-over cricket, but it’s more about finding places to accommodate our youngsters around our senior players,” he said.

Namibia will take on Nigeria in a three-match 50-over series starting today and several other youngsters have been taken up in the squad.

They include Tangi Nuujoma, Zacheo van Vuuren, Tiaan van der Merwe, Adriaan Coetzee, Henre Oppermann, Michael Muller, Kyle van Santen and William Lottering, while the team will be captained by Nicol Loftie-Eaton.

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