Namibia beat Ireland Wolves by six wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the 50 over Castle Light series match played at Wanderers Cricket Fields in Windhoek on Sunday.

This was Namibia’s second victory in four matches after winning the first and losing the third, while the second was washed out by the rains at the same venue.

Namibia won the toss and elected to field.

Ireland did not start the game well as their opening three batsmen scored 43 runs from 88 balls.

However, their middle-order stabilised their innings with Gareth James Delany scoring 81 runs off 77 balls to help his team record a decent total of 178 runs for 10 wickets in their 50 overs (178/10).

In return, Namibia posted 179/4 in 33.5 over of their allocated 50.

The opening two batsmen once again failed to provide a strong foundation by scoring 11 runs between them, number three Nicol Loftie-Eaton and number four captain Gerhard Erasmus scored 60 and 66 not out respectively, to put Namibia in the driving seat.

Erasmus was named man of the match after starring with both bat and ball (bowling two overs and conceding four runs).

Speaking after the match, Erasmus said as a team they were disappointed to lose the previous match hence they had to improve in Sunday’s one so as to please the fans who always expect them to perform well.

“We played a decent game of cricket. Apart from the win, it is always nice to keep on winning and creating a winning culture. We started off slowly with the ball and with the bat, but we did get a few inspiration catches that swung the game our way,” he said.

Losing captain Neil Alan Rock said his team needs to improve and back up their previous win with better performance when they play the last game of the 50 over series on Tuesday at the same venue.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency