Dubai , 29 March 2008
Namibia surged to the top of the ICC Intercontinental Cup table when it defeated the Netherlands by seven wickets with a day to spare at the Wanderers Cricket Ground in Windhoek on Saturday.
Left-arm pacer Kola Burger bagged a career-best 5-27 as the visitors were bowled out for 323 after being forced to follow on. Like the first innings, only nine wickets fell as Pieter Seelaar did not bat after being injured while batting on Friday.
Namibia, set a 94-run target, achieved victory in 19.3 overs with opener Andries J.Burger hitting a quickfire 38-ball 46 with five fours and a six, and Raymond van Schoor chipping in with 24.
The victory gave Namibia 20 points which put it on 68 points – two ahead of Kenya and 19 ahead of defending champion Ireland which is in third place. Namibia ’s next match is against Canada which is lying in sixth-placed on 26 points.
The feature of the day’s play was an excellent display of fast bowling by Burger, who finished with match figures of 9-71. His third five-wicket haul also helped him become the leading wicket-taker in this year's first-class tournament for the leading Associate teams with 23 wickets.
Burger received good support from Gerrie Snyman (2-84), Sarel Burger (1-47) and Craig Williams (1-17).
One of Burger’s scalps was century-maker Ryan ten Doeschate, who was the eighth batsman out after scoring a superb 116 – his 11th first-class century in 37 matches.
27-year-old Doeschate, who represents Essex in the UK county championship, batted for 290 minutes during which he received 169 balls. His innings included eight fours and three sixes.
Doeschate put on 58 runs for the fourth wicket with Eric Szwarczynski (23) and 65 runs with Peter Borren (36) for the sixth wicket. Both those batsmen fell to Burger who also accounted for Daan van Bunge (0) and captain Jeroen Smits (7).
Ultimately the Netherlands team was left with too much to do after being bundled out in its first innings.
The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now the ICC’s premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members’ cricket schedule.
Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams who do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.
Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada earlier this year in the 2006-07 event.
The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007-08 will take place in November 2008 in the UAE.
ICC MEDIA RELEASE