DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Battered Bermuda’s survival in the World Cricket League Division Two was hanging by a thread after they slumped to their third defeat in four matches with a crushing 87-run defeat at the hands of Namibia here yesterday.
The African side piled up a commanding 297 for eight in their 50 overs – the highest total in the tournament so far – after winning the toss and then bundled out Bermuda for 211 in the 43rd over in spite of a promising start to their reply.
Bermuda’s final match tomorrow is against unbeaten hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) and defeat is likely to mean relegation to Division Three.
UAE made it four wins in a row by beating Uganda by 87 runs while Papua New Guinea defeated Hong Kong in yesterday’s other match by 43 runs.
Bermuda undid all the good work of restricting Namibia to 157 for one in 36 overs by conceding 140 runs in the final 14 overs – half of them scored by Namibia skipper Craig Williams, who hammered 74 off just 35 balls, to build on the good work of opener Ewald Steenkamp (87) and Sarel Burger (59), who added 155 for the second wicket.
Bermuda had no answer to the assault despite half centuries from opener Dion Stovell (73) and Lionel Cann (53).
After losing skipper David Hemp for nought Stovell helped his side race to 106 for three off the opening 16 overs.
But they then lost three wickets in the space of 10 balls after a water break and collapsed to 113 for six.
Cann and Rodney Trott (29) revived the innings by adding 81 but their hopes of a remarkable win vanished when Cann went soon after reaching his half century and from 194 for six Bermuda collapsed again to 211 all out.
Left-arm spinner Louis van der Westhuizen was the pick of the Namibian attack with four for 14 from 6.3 overs.
