Canada take on the hosts, Namibia, today in what is effectively a must win game, after losing their two first matches. Namibia made 258/6, batting first, and Canada lost by 98 runs, and face relegation to Division 3. relegation.
Rodrigo Thomas and Dillon Heyliger came into the team at the expense of Cecil Pervez and Gunasekera. Davy Jacobs won his third toss, and put Namibia in to bat. Dhaliwal dismissed Kotze- an excellent caught and bowled in the 6th over, but then Baard and Bredenkamp made slow progress against the Canadian bowling. Dhaliwal conceded just 13 runs in his first 6 over spell. Saad Bin Zafar had Bredenkamp caught behind with the score on 91 after 24.4 overs, and followed it up two overs later having Frylinck well caught by Patel – 97/3. Spin continued to be effective as Nikhil Dutta took an excellent catch off his own bowling, but Baard and Williams put together a good partnership of 69, accelerating against the pace bowlers. Dutta concluded an excellent spell by bowling Baard for 90- he took 2/38 from his 10 overs. Williams hit well for an unbeaten 65, Smits made a rapid 35, and Namibia finished on 258/6- a challenging total, particularly considering Canada’s performances to date.
Rodrigo Thomas got Canada off to a good start with an enterprising 28, but two quick wickets saw Canada at 57/3 after 14.2 overs. No-one in the middle order played the big innings required- Kumar (19), Adhihetty (12), Patel (10) and Jacobs (23) all got a start but failed to move on and Canada went down to another heavy loss – all out 160. Tp scorer was the number 10, Heyliger, with 29.
In other matches the USA seemed on track for qualification as they bowled out PNG for just 127. Hong Kong were bowled out for 178 by Oman who lost three wickets in overtaking the target.
Canada are now 0 and 3, with PNG and USA to play. A win over PNG in their next match gives them a theoretical chance – if Canada win their last two matches and Hong Kong lose theirs, Canada should scrape through. There are a number of other permutations, but Canada’s poor net run rate puts them at a disadvantage in the case of a tie.