Uganda beat Namibia by seven wickets to level the ongoing Castle Light Twenty-Twenty (T-20) Cricket match series at United Cricket Grounds here on Saturday.
After winning the toss and electing to field first, Uganda produced a stunning comeback to win the match having let Namibia post a competitive score of 174 runs for four wickets (174/4) in their 20 overs.
Captain Gerhard Erasmus led from the front with 100 runs off 47 balls hitting a massive nine fours and seven sixes.
He was ably assisted by Jean-Pierre (JP) Kotze who scored 39 runs off 36 balls.
Uganda started off slowly with their top three batters going out for a combined 40 runs off 37 balls.
The introduction of Ali Riazat Shah and Kumar Maganlal Dinesh changed the completion of the game.
Shah scored 57 runs off 43 balls while Dinesh top-scored for his side with 77 off 39 balls to lead Uganda to a seven-wicket victory on 19.5 overs with a total of 178/3.
Namibia coach Pierre de Bruyn said he was disappointed with the results but conceded that they lost to a better team.
“As the number one ranked associate team in Africa, this is a huge wake up to us that tells us teams are getting better and we have to raise our game. We were out batted. We did not bat well enough in the power play. We knew we were 20 runs shot,” he said.
He added that his team was aware of the wind and the short boundaries which put pressure on the bowlers.
De Bruyn called on his team to raise their game by at least 20 per cent to avoid being taught another lesson by Uganda.
He said his team must not panic and such matches are good at showing how his team will manage defeats.
Namibia won the first match by eight wickets on Friday and the third match takes place on Sunday at the same venue.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
