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Erasmus smashes 77 to help Namibia down UAE

Namibia 274 for 6 (Erasmus 77, Burger 57*) beat United Arab Emirates 272 for 7 (Mustafa 96, Shabber 71, Frylinck 3-37) by four wickets

Two days after being bowled out for 89 by UAE, Namibia bounced back against the same opponents, chasing down 273 with seven balls to spare in Windhoek. After Namibia were reduced to 130 for 5, their captain Sarel Burger hit an unbeaten half-century, and added 96 for the sixth wicket with Gerhard Erasmus to put his team back on course. Eventually Burger shepherded his team to a four-wicket win with assistance from JJ Smit's 13-ball cameo of 22 towards the back end of the innings.

Having elected to bat first, UAE put up a strong performance to post 272, and may have scored more if it wasn't for left-arm pacer Jan Frylinck. UAE were comfortably poised at 251 for 2 in 45 overs when Frylinck bowled half-centurion Shaiman Anwar, and he then conceded only one run and took two more wickets in the 50th over. UAE managed to add only 21 runs in their last five overs, for the loss of five wickets.

That UAE had such a strong platform to build on, though, was courtesy opener Rohan Mustafa's 113-ball 96 and wicketkeeper Ghulam Shabber's 71-ball 71, but their total was eventually just not enough.

The loss for UAE guarantees they will finish in the bottom half of the WCL Championship final standings, thus relegating them back to WCL Division Two along with Namibia. Canada and Oman currently sit in Division Two after being promoted from Division Three this past May in Uganda.

These four teams will be joined in Division Two by the fifth and sixth placed finishers in the WCL Championship, currently Kenya and Nepal, to play Division Two in early 2018. The top two finishers at Division Two will advance to the 2018 World Cup Qualifier where they will join the top four sides in the WCL Championship - currently Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Hong Kong - as well as West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan.

Namibia 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st42LP van der WesthuizenSJ Baard
2nd0SJ BaardL Louwrens
3rd31CG WilliamsL Louwrens
4th28JN FrylinckL Louwrens
5th29MG ErasmusL Louwrens
6th96SF BurgerMG Erasmus
7th48SF BurgerJJ Smit