A 99 run partnership for the eighth wicket between Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton and Pikky Ya France saw Namibia defeat Scotland’s men by three wickets in Cricket World Cup League 2 action on Monday.
The Scots went into their third match of the tour to Namibia having already beaten the hosts and Nepal.
They were looking to make it three from three, but could only post 208 all out batting first in Windhoek and then found the two aforementioned batters in their way during the second half of proceedings.
Namibia ended up on 210-7 with six overs of their 50 to go after a cracking match which ebbed and flowed throughout the day.
Scotland head coach Shane Burger said: “We are very disappointed with the end result.
“Credit must go to the Namibian batters at the end there who showed great fight and got their side over the line, but I think that we allowed them to play the way that they did and there were lots of areas where we could have been better.
“It was certainly not down to any lack of effort from our bowlers, but at times our discipline let us down a bit and, earlier in the day, with bat in hand no one was able to go on and make a big score that could have got us up to a more competitive total of 250 plus.
“With that being said, I want to praise what Brendon McMullen did in this game [56 with the bat, 2-27 with the ball and an excellent catch]. This was only his third One Day International, but he has stepped up to this level very well.
“We felt we were in control before the [eighth wicket] stand from Namibia, the guys tried their hardest, but two games in two days in this heat meant it was hard to keep the energy up.
“At the end of the day the execution just wasn’t quite there.”
Things did not begin well for Scotland batting first as Kyle Coetzer was out LBW to Ruben Trumpelmann off the first ball of the contest.
Number three batter Chris McBride was then caught behind off the bowling of JJ Smit for 8 and the visitors were 26-2 approaching the end of the sixth over.
George Munsey and skipper Richie Berrington then went about rebuilding things with a 46 run partnership before the latter was caught behind off the bowling of Tangeni Lungameni for 15.
That was 72-3 in the 19th over and although Munsey reached a hard fought half century soon after – his 51 coming off 75 balls – he was out in the 23rd over to leave things at 85-4.
Matthew Cross and Brandon McMulen then put together a 48 run partnership for the fifth wicket before the former, the vice-captain, was out for 17 in the 34th over.
McMullen continued on his merry way and by the time he was out for 56 – coming off 70 balls – LBW to Bernard Scholtz, the Scots were 179-8.
Safyaan Sharif chipped in with 14 and Chris Sole 15 at the death as the team made it to 208 all out when the former was out off the last ball of the innings.
Trumpelmann led the Namibian bowling attack superbly with 4-37 while the four other bowlers used all took scalps too.
Scotland had lost a wicket off the first ball of their innings and Namibia lost one off the ninth ball of the reply.
McMullen trapped Michael van Lingen LBW for 7 and when he then had Divan la Cock caught by Michael Leask for 3 two overs later the home side were 13-2.
Lo-handre Louwrens and skipper Gerhard Erasmus then put on 28 runs for the third wicket before Mark Watt got the key wicket of the latter caught by McMullen.
When Sharif then got in on the action with Louwrens wicket, Scotland felt they were on top and wanted to press home their advantage.
From 49-4, Namibia stuttered to 111-7 in the 25th over and the visitors could sense the finish line in sight.
Loftie-Eaton and Ya France had other ideas though and, with plenty overs to spare, they set about a rebuild.
The Scots bowlers gave it everything, but the former made his way to 67 not out off of 96 balls and the latter 52 not out off just 55 balls.
Ya France ended things with a 6 off the bowling of Sole and, two balls later, a 4 to spark celebrations in the home camp and leave the Scots to ponder what might have been.
Watt finished with 3-28 off nine overs, including four maidens, while McMullen and Sharif were the other wicket takers.
Next up for Scotland is their final match of the trip versus Nepal on Thursday.
