Namibia vs United Arab Emirates, ICCCWCLT, Today Match Prediction 26 September 2024

NAM vs UAE Match Prediction & Analysis

Namibia and United Arab Emirates are all set to face off in Windhoek for one last time in the league. Both sides have struggled for consistency in recent matches, and a victory in this game will help both teams catch a break from a string of defeats. Namibia started the tournament with a flurry of wins but have since hit a slump, losing their last six matches.

United Arab Emirates have also faced their fair share of challenges, winning just one out of six matches. The African nation will need to bat well and long and address their bowling inconsistencies especially through the middle overs to avoid seventh straight defeat. United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, must find a way to improve their batting and bowling performances to make sure they don’t finish at the bottom.

The outcome of this match could have a significant impact on where these teams finish their campaign, more so for UAE who're looking to avoid a last-place finish.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Namibia Preview

Namibia’s campaign has sort of nosedived after a successful run at the start of the campaign that saw them gather momentum and win four out of their first five matches. But all that momentum fizzled out slowly with the African side losing all their recent six games. All those defeats were huge, except for one game against UAE where they came close to snatching victory from the jaws of defeat only to be denied in the end.

Michael Van Lingen, JJ Smit and Gerhard Erasmus have done reasonably well with the bat, each accumulating 300 runs in the series so far.

Opener Lingen’s scores of 40, 67 and 107 in the recent five matches shows he has done well at the top trying to give his team a good platform early on. Their bowling has suffered from the absence of Ruben Trumpelmann. But the spin trio Gerhard Erasmus (17 scalps from 11 games), Bernard Scholtz (12 wickets from 11 games) and Loftie Eaton (11 from 7) have been amongst the wickets.

Pacer Ben Shikongo has done well in the limited chances he secured, but Jan Frylinck’s failure to strike regularly through the middle overs has cost Namibia dearly though.

Namibia Predicted Playing XI:

Michael van Lingen, JP Kotze(w), Jan Frylinck, Gerhard Erasmus(c), Malan Kruger, JJ Smit, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Jan de Villiers, Bernard Scholtz, Jack Brassell, Tangeni Lungameni.

United Arab Emirates Preview

United Arab Emirates have gone through a bad patch in the league so far, winning just one out of six matches. Their excellent last over win against Namibia chasing 314 was the lone bright spot in what has been a miserable campaign. It’s hard to imagine a team that got dismissed for 106 and 132 in earlier matches wrapping up a record run chase.

But their batsmen dug deep and kept fighting all the way till the end to take the team over the line. Outside of that, UAE batters have not impressed. Muhammad Waseem couldn’t find his feet in the tournament yet and has been struggling to post a fifty.

With batsman like him not firing, the onus is on the other seniors like Basil Hameed and Rahul Chopra. Hameed has not disappointed, with 182 runs from six games, and so has Chopra who has tallied 130 runs from his six. Vishnu Sukumaran almost hit a century in that mammoth chase, but couldn’t quite get to replicate that feat in the other two games.

As far as bowling is concerned, Aayan Afzal Khan has led the way, picking up 7 wickets from 5 matches at an impressive economy rate and average. He has been UAE’s best bowler across formats in the recent past, but Junaid Siddique, another big name in their bowling ranks, couldn’t do much to improve his reputation. Basil Hameed’s offies have been dealt with by opposition batters, as his figures show: 2/174 of 37 overs in the competition.

Overall, UAE has had a shocker of a campaign where their players have been largely unsuccessful with both bat and ball.

United Arab Emirates Predicted Playing XI:

Aryansh Sharma(w), Muhammad Waseem(c), Alishan Sharafu, Vishnu Sukumaran, Rahul Chopra, Aayan Afzal Khan, Basil Hameed, Ali Naseer, Rahul Bhatia, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Jawadullah.

Weather Conditions

What’s a good score at this venue? Teams here have had a lot of success, especially in the last year, when they post a total above 260-ish. Both teams would do well to play percentage cricket and find a way to get to this mark rather than overestimate what a good score on this pitch could be and be bowled out getting there. The forecast for the match is good and barring an odd shower we should get a complete game of cricket.

NAM vs UAE Pitch Report

This match will be held at the Wanderers Cricket Ground in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Erasmus and Lingen from Namibia and Muhammad Waseem from UAE have piled on the runs here, whereas Ben Scholtz and JJ Smit have enjoyed bowling here. Namibia have won 7 from 10 matches here, whereas UAE has won all their 3 fixtures here.

Toss: To Bat

Of the five matches held here in the Windhoek leg, four have been won by teams batting second. However, the ground has a reputation to be a good venue to defend totals on, with teams batting first successfully defending the score 17 out of 23 times .Both statistics are hard to ignore, but our guess is the toss-winning captain is likely to pick defending a total over chasing one.