U19 WC Qualifiers: Kenya stopped by Namibia a day after dismantling Sierra Leone

Kenya national U19 cricket side suffered their first defeat in the ongoing ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers as they fell to early log leaders Namibia by seven wickets in a Wednesday morning round-robin fixture at the University of Dar es Salaam Grounds, Tanzania.

Coming off an emphatic victory over Sierra Leone on Tuesday - where the Kenyans put up 141 runs in 40.2 overs to win by six wickets - team skipper Vishil Patel won the toss and elected to bat, a decision that ultimately looked sorry at the end of the day’s events.

It only took 4.6 overs for the opening batters - Brian Likavu and Darsh Panchani - to exit the crease, with the former falling to a duck having faced two balls before falling to one of Morris Kariata’s deliveries that was caught by Daniel Blignaut.

Namibia’s class in bowling attack was evident throughout the game, as they at some point forced two consecutive maidens, with the trio of Alex Volschenk, Gerhard Janse Rensburg and Kariata putting some nerves on the Kenyan batters who struggled with a dismal run-rate of 1.03 to register 64 runs all out in 30.4 overs.

At the end of the grueling first innings, only two batters: Panchani and Stian Smith, had recorded double digits runs, scoring 14 and 21 runs from 23 and 60 balls faced respectively.

On the other end, Kennedy Wangoi and Hitendra Sanghavi joined Likavu on the duck-list.

The second innings therefore looked seamless for the South African representatives as they cruised to the target within 16.4 overs, and led by Volschenk who was the last entrant with 19 runs off 11 balls faced.

JW Visagie contributed 14 runs with Hansie De Villiers putting up 11 runs in the innings that saw Aarnav Patel, Sanghavi and Vishil score one wicket each.

With the defeat, Josephat Irungu’s men now lie third in the table standings behind Namibia and Uganda and on three points.

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Earlier in the day, Uganda registered their second win of the tournament with a three wickets victory over Tanzania, a day after obliterating Nigeria by 30 runs.

Kenya’s next fixture is against fierce rivals Uganda on 28 July at the Dar Gymkhana Grounds. The game kicks off at 0930 hrs.