First Post

We arrived safely on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Windhoek, Namibia. All was well and everyone was safe. Having all unpacked and checked in to the country club hotel and after having a brief training session at Wanderers we went out to the well known Joe's Beer House in Windhoek a tradition going back many tours. The food was scrumptious and many of the boys experienced tasting foods that they haven't tasted before for example Zebra, Crocodile, Kudu and Ostrich. It was apparent that everyone was tired and shortly after the meal we were all in bed and ready for the next day's training session.

We arose early the next morning and had a decent breakfast and went to the Wanderers cricket club to start our day's training. Soon everyone gauged just how hard it would be to play cricket in South Africa and Namibia due to the demanding conditions and altitude.

After a few hours of training and many dropped catches we returned to the hotel to enjoy the rest of the day and the hot weather. Many of the boys spent their time enjoying the hotels facilities such as the pool, rooms and for some the free Internet connection!

After a few hours of relaxation we decided to have dinner at a local mall in Windhoek. The favourites among tourists were the Spur steakhouse and a very tasty Pizzeria. Having been well fed and watered we got an early night at the hotel knowing tomorrow would be a big test and our first game of the tour against a Namibian U19 Invitational XI. Unfortunately the Wanderers Cricket Club Ground was deemed unplayable for 6 weeks by the Namibian Cricket Board. However this was not too much of a hindrance as we got to play at the United Ground which supposedly had a better deck than the one at the Wanderers Ground. We arrived at the ground on time and began our pre-match warm up, unfortunately our stand in captain, Nigel Jacob, lost an important toss. After some very disciplined fast bowling from the Namibian side we found ourselves 65 for 5. Then the spinners took a strangle hold on the game bowling us all out for 109, which in all honesty was a modest total. The highlight of the innings was Richard Barrett and Lakshman Sathananthan's hard fought 10th wicket partnership of 31.

After a quick tea the boys were out on the field raring to go. After a great start from Rahul Patel who took a wicket in the 1st over the boys confidence was flying sky high and luckily for Rahul, Jeremy Bromfield was not umpiring at his end so the LBW decision did stand! Rahul was well backed up by Lakshman Sathanathan and Samraj Sadra; consequently the Namibian side found themselves 65-5 which was identical to Bancroft's 1st innings score at this point. Despite some excellent spin bowling from Matthew Reid-Evans and Neville Jacob, which was backed up well by some outstanding fielding from the Bancroft's side, the might of the Namibian lower order was true and they coasted to a 5 wicket victory. As this may be dissapointing for the boys, it was none the less a solid start to tour considering acclimatization and in particular acclimatization sickness to captain Rishabh Shah and Tyrone Behari.

A notable performance from the match was Rahul Patel's 3-20 off 6 overs.

We have another game tomorrow and the camp are looking forward to it with high spirits and anticipation!