Remarkable second day sees Namibia with a slight edge
The second day of the Intercontinental Cup final in Port Elizabeth has been a remarkable one, with Namibia emerging with a slight edge at the close of play, though that edge could have been a chasm had it not been for Alex Cusack and Trent Johnston.
Resuming on 241/9, Namibia scored nine more runs before Peter Connell took the last wicket, finishing with figures of 5/54. Ireland’s reply started disastrously. Gerrie Snyman, usually known more for his batting heroics, tore through the Irish top order with five quick wickets, reducing the Irish to 37/5.
Snyman bowled William Porterfield, Andre Botha and Kevin O’Brien in one single over. He didn’t take any more wickets though, as Alex Cusack and Trent Johnston set about rebuliding the innings for Ireland.
The pair put on 141 for the sixth wicket before Johnston was bowled by Deon Kotze for 58. Sarel Burger then polished off the tail, taking 4/23 as Ireland were bowled out for 195, 95 of those runs coming from Cusack, who was left stranded five runs short of his second first-class century.
There was time for nine overs of the Namibian innings and the third over saw Peter Connell continue his wicket-taking ways by trapping Louis van der Westhuizen and Louis Lkazinga lbw for ducks. Namibia were on 14/2 at the close.
Posted: October 31st, 2008 by Andrew Nixon.
Comments: 1
Comments
Comment from mukumu
Time: October 31, 2008, 11:59 pm
Definitely Ireland and Namibia were the two top teams in the Intercontinental Cup this year - so I guess it’s befitting that they are in the final. It looks like Namibia playing in a South African league and Ireland playing in an English league is helping these two teams with consistency.
Kenya’s league is in shambles but it also seems that they are in a rebuilding phase as they try to find new players to replace the aging players like Steve Tikolo who although still very good his reaction and timing might not be as good as they were when he was younger. You also have to wonder whether he is tired and he is just trying to keep going until the team is capable of standing on it’s own without him. In a better team like Australia or New Zealand he might have been pushed out by a younger player. Kenya also has a problem where good young players like Ravindu Shah and Tanmay Mishra seemingly walked away from the game - not sure why, maybe they couldn’t make a living out of it and decided it was not worth it. However, with players like Alex Obanda, Serene Waters (although he is new), Thomas Odoyo (still relatively young), Peter Ongondo and some others, including Tanmay Mishra they still have a good team when everything is working to perfection.
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