Namibia’s senior men’s cricket team, Eagles, will be looking to bounce back this week when they face the Netherlands on Thursday and Canada on Saturday in the International Cricket Council Men’s Cricket World Cup League.
The team suffered a tough outing last week, losing to the Netherlands by 53 runs on Friday before narrowly falling to Canada with just three balls remaining.
These consecutive defeats leave Namibia in sixth place on the log with 12 points, trailing table-toppers United States of America by 10 points.
The Americans lead the standings with 22 points from 16 matches.
Reflecting on Friday’s match, Namibian captain Gerhard Erasmus acknowledged that his team was not at its best against the Netherlands.
“We played good cricket for large parts of the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t build strong partnerships to put them under pressure,” he admitted.
While weather conditions over the weekend were less than ideal, he dismissed the notion that they played a major role in Namibia’s struggles.
“We compete in these conditions regularly, so it wasn’t a major factor. I think we just lacked luck on the day,” he said.
Erasmus remains optimistic, highlighting that preparation will be key as they gear up for their next matches.
“It’s about backing our skills, trusting our preparation and executing our game plan properly. We have a quality team. We just need to go back to the drawing board, make a few adjustments and turn things around,” he said.
The World League 2 features eight teams, including Nepal, Oman, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Each of the sides will be playing 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026.
The top four teams move on to a 10-country World Cup Qualifier that will send the last four teams to the 2027 World Cup. The bottom four teams can also progress to the Qualifier but will have to get there via the Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff, which includes the top four teams from the Cricket World Cup Challenge League.
-mkambukwe@nepc.com.na