Netherlands one step closer to Australia!

Netherlands have won both WCL Championship matches against Namibia.

Netherlands (269/9) defeated Namibia (237) by 31 runs
In the first match, the Dutch batting first scored 268 on the back of some solid contributions from Wesley Barresi, Tom Cooper and Tom de Grooth. Some late hitting from Mudassar Bukhari and Timm van der Gugten helped the Netherlands to set a more challenging target for the Namibians. The Africans made a good fist of it with Craig Williams playing superbly for his near a run a ball 116. It was fifth List A century and now averages around 35, which is a decent effort. Nicolaas Scholtz did alright for his 37, but a lack of help from the other batsmen, proved Namibia's downfall. Van der Gugten continued his impressive form with three wickets.

Netherlands (240/9) defeated Namibia (236/5) by 1 wicket
The second match was an incredibly close encounter with the Netherlands winning with only 1 wicket to spare and 2 overs remaining. Daan van Bunge controlled the chase of 240 for the Dutch, as at 178/7 things were looking quite dire for them. Earlier Namibia made 236/5 with opener Raymond van Schoor carrying his bat for 93*. Namibia would have been disappointed that despite only losing five wickets, they were unable to post a big score.

The Netherlands are now in a great position in the WCL Championship after picking up a maximum four points from this tour. They puts them into 2nd on 14 points, only behind Ireland who are on 17. The Netherlands have now opened up a sizeable three point gap on the chasing pack of Scotland, Afghanistan, Kenya and UAE. With only four matches left (including two matches against last placed Canada) the Netherlands would be favourites to now claim one of the direct World Cup qualifying spots. Nambia are now effectively out of the top 2 race and are left to focus on getting one of the two remaining spots in the qualifying tournament to be played in New Zealand early next year.

The Netherlands end their African tour with a T20 quadrangular with Kenya, Namibia, and a South Africa Emerging XI, which begins today with a T20I between them and Kenya.