Kathmandu, Mar. 4: The Netherlands, after sharing points with Namibia in the final league match, have progressed to the final of the T20 tri-series against Nepal. Namibia and the Netherlands shared one point each after the match on Sunday was interrupted by rain.

Before Sunday’s faceoff, the Netherlands, with two wins and a loss, had four points while the Richelieu Eagles, with one win, had two. As the match was later abandoned after the weather did not clear on time, the two teams shared one point each.

After the sharing of the points, the Netherlands stood top of the table with 5 points. Nepal, with two wins in four matches, has four points and is in the second position. Namibia, winner of the League 2 tri-series, stood last in the T2o tri-series with three points. Nepal and the Netherlands will play the final at the TU International Cricket Ground on March 5.

Rain interruption

The match started with gloomy weather. And as 15 overs of the first inning ended, the match was stopped by the downpour.

Winning the toss, the Dutch side elected to field first. While the Namibian openers gave a good start for the team, wickets started falling after the first one in the first ball of the 5th over.

JP Kotze, who was supporting Malan Kruger, departed as Namibia’s first wicket after getting caught behind the stumps in the over of Vivian Kingma. 

And with Timm van der Gugten taking the second wicket in the form of Jan Frylinck (5 off 7) in 5.3 overs, experienced Roelof van der Merwe took the third wicket for the team in the next over. Kruger was the victim of Merwe as he was bowled out in 6.1 overs after adding 24 runs.

From 35/3 in 6.1 overs, captain JJ Smit and Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton partnered well in the middle, but not enough. When Smit departed after getting caught by Noah Croes in the ball of Aryan Dutt in 10.3 overs, Namibia was at 60/4.

Before the rain interrupted the match, Namibia was taken to 98/4 in 15 overs by Loftie-Eaton (34 off 29) and Zane Green (11 off 10).

Bernard Scholtz also became the most experienced player for Namibia by surpassing Gerhard Erasmus as Scholtz played his 53rd T20I on Sunday.