Captain Blessing Mavuta took six wickets as Zimbabwe Under-19 crushed their Namibian counterparts by eight wickets in an International Cricket Council Under-19 Cricket World Cup warm-up match at MA Aziz Stadium in the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong.

Mavuta’s magic spell with the ball helped dismiss Namibia, who won the toss and elected to bat, for 120 runs in 39,5 overs. Namibia got off to a steady start, with the opening pair of Sybrand Jacobus Loftie-Eaton (38) and Niko Davin (21) sharing a 46-run stand for the first wicket.

However, Kundai Matigimu gave Zimbabwe the breakthrough when he clean-bowled Davin with the second ball of the 11th over to leave Namibia at 46-1. With Namibia struggling to find fluidity, Jeremy Ives dented their hopes when he bowled Loftie-Eaton to claim the first of his two wickets in the match.

Zane Green and Lohan Louwrens — the only other batsmen to get to double figures for Namibia with 23 runs and 14 runs respectively — tried to rebuild the innings, but Mavuta would have none of that. The 18-year-old Zimbabwe skipper trapped Green leg before wicket and had Michael van Lingen trudging back to the pavilion for a golden duck with the next delivery to begin his magical spell.

Mavuta ran out Charl Brits for six runs before having Chrischen Olivier (three) clipping his leg-break delivery to Matigimu as Namibia’s middle order collapsed in spectacular fashion. As he continued he caught and bowled Louwrens before dismissing Francois Rautenbach for a duck and Warren van Wyk for two runs as the Namibian tail failed to wag.

Ives completed the wipe-out with the scalp of Fritz Coetzee, who failed to score from the five balls he faced as Namibia were all out for 120 in 39,5 overs. Zimbabwe had little trouble chasing down the target, scoring 121 for 2 in 22,2 overs, with Shaun Snyder smashing 60 runs off 62 balls before retiring hurt in the 20th over.

His opening partner Brendan Sly was two runs short of his own fifty when he was caught by substitute fielder Burton Jacobs off a Honga delivery, but the job was as good as done. — The Herald

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