ABOUT THE MATCH
Scotland will go top of Group A in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier if they beat Namibia when the two teams meet at Dubai’s ICC Academy Ground on October 22.
After losing to Singapore first up, Scotland has bounced back with wins against Kenya and Papua New Guinea. They beat the latter by just four runs after Josh Davey took two wickets and conceded just four runs in the final over.
The Scots are now big favorites to beat Namibia, who have been bowled out for 96 and 116 on their way to defeats to the Netherlands and Papua New Guinea. Jan Frylinck has taken six wickets so far, but the Namibian batting has fallen well short.
TOSS PREDICTION
Scotland has won the toss in all three matches so far so they are due to lose one. Namibia may elect to bat first if they win the toss, having lost both matches batting second so far.
PITCH AND CONDITIONS
While it is getting more humid in the UAE, the hot weather and lack of rain is set to be the pattern for this entire tournament. Temperatures should already be in the 30s by the time this game starts in the morning.
The main ICC Academy Ground has been a well-balanced wicket for this qualifier. Good batting has been rewarded, but so has good bowling.
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Scotland
George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer (c), Ollie Hairs, Calum MacLeod, Richie Berrington, Matthew Cross (wk), Tom Sole, Safyaan Sharif, Josh Davey, Mark Watt, Hamza Tahir
PROBABLE PLAYING XI OF Namibia
JP Kotze, Niko Davin, Christi Viljoen, Gerhard Erasmus (c), JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Craig Williams, Jan Frylinck, Pikky Ya France, Zhivago Groenewald, Bernard Scholtz
MATCH PREVIEW
Scotland
- Scotland was unchanged against Papua New Guinea, with Mark Watt continuing in place of Alasdair Evans and bowling well too. It could be the third game in a row with that winning XI.
- Scotland has bounced back well since they finished just short of chasing 169 to beat Singapore in the opening game.
- The Scots could only reach 166/9 as they suffered a shock loss, but they have beaten Kenya and Papua New Guinea since.
- Against Kenya, they posted 170/6 and Richie Berrington (3-17), Josh Davey (2-25) and Safyaan Sharif (2-28) all played a key part as they restricted the opposition to 139/8 in reply.
- Against Papua New Guinea, meanwhile, Kyle Coetzer’s 54 helped them post 146/6.
- In reply, Papua New Guinea needed nine from the final over, but Josh Davey (2-23) took wickets with the first two balls and conceded just four from it in total.
Namibia
- Namibia has been unchanged personnel-wise so far but reordered their batting line-up against Papua New Guinea.
- After two heavy defeats, however, they may soon be considering more drastic changes.
- Namibia has lost both matches they have played so far, by big margins too.
- Jan Frylinck took three wickets as they restricted the Netherlands to 140/6 in their first game, but they were bowled out for 96 in reply.
- Then, against Papua New Guinea, Frylinck took three more wickets but the Barras posted 197/7 before running Namibia out for 116.
PROBABLE WINNING TEAM:
Namibia has started this tournament in excellent form but their remains a bridge between themselves and the top teams in the qualifier like Scotland. As of yet, the Barras have not looked like cutting that deficit.
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