Windhoek
The Momentum Cricket Week once again underlined its status as one of Namibia’s premier developmental tournaments when the country’s leading Under-19 cricketers showcased their God-given skills in the capital this week.
The five-day youth tournament, arguably the most closely contested edition since its inception in 2013, was staged at various venues in Windhoek, from last Friday with the finals played on Tuesday.
Reigning champions Windhoek Gymnasium retained their title by claiming top honours again, but this time the boys from the capital were made to work extra hard for their win.
In the group stages, the pre-tournament favourites suffered a setback, falling short to their arch-rivals, Windhoek High School (WHS).
However, Gymnasium went on to win the rest of their group games, but with WHS and the Coastal team manufacturing three wins of their own, the trio ended up tied six points each.
“The tie meant WHS, Gymnasium and the Coastal teams finished on the same points after the round robin, resulting in Gymnasium topping the log table on a better net run rate, with WHS edging ahead of the Coastal team for the honour to play in the final,” explained Steven Berry, Development Manager of Cricket Namibia. In the final, Gymnasium finally got their sweet revenge, thanks to Nico Davin – who top-scored with an impeccable 129 runs off 70 balls to propel his team to a total of 209 runs after 20 overs, losing just three wickets in the process. Thus restricting WHS to 152 all-out.
Davin was eventually named player of the tournament to round off a season that saw the young cricket sensation getting his first cap for the senior national cricket team this year. He scored a massive 474 runs off 228 balls over the entire event.
Petrus Burger from the Coastal team amassed seven wickets to his credit, but his inferior economy rate prevented him from getting onto the podium.
There was some very exciting cricket all round, it was really great to see some of the young cricketers from the country districts coming through the ranks, with the likes of Jaco Grobelaar impressing with the bat, even receiving the man of the match award against the Coastal side.
Other encouraging performances came from youngsters such as Riaan van Zyl (Elnatan) and Diwan Engelbrecht (Gobabis).