Durbanville Cricket Club’s Linde can’t stop Africa T20 Cup defeat

George Linde Africa T20 CupLinde takes action on Friday.

Key contributions from Durbanville Cricket Club’s George Linde and Cape Town Cricket Club’s Kyle Verreynne failed to prevent Western Province from slipping to a two-run defeat to Namibia, in Friday’s opening Africa T20 Cup fixture at the City Oval in Pietermaritzburg.

Spinning all-rounder Linde clinched the important wicket of opening batsman Helao Ya France, who top-scored with a solid 40 in Namibia’s final total of 137 for nine in the allotted 20 overs.

The left-handed Linde later struck a brisk 32 from 18 deliveries during an important 50-run partnership alongside Verreynne inside five overs. The right-handed Verreynne managed 37 from 34 balls in an insufficient response of 135 for nine.

Western Province required just five runs from the final over to win, but only managed two, as all-rounder Shaheen Khan and tail-enders Tshepo Moreki and Mpilo Njoloza endured a superb closing six deliveries from left-arm seamer Jan Frylinck.

“The deck was quite hard and green up front, so it was good  to take a couple of early wickets, but after that the Namibians got into a good rhythm and posted a good total,” the 19-year-old Verreynne told Club Cricket SA.

“When we came into bat, the pitch seemed to be a bit flatter, but we lost some early wickets. Dayyaan Galiem and I were going well, but then he was caught on the boundary. After that, George looked to attack the bowling and I just worked it around a bit. We, too, were going well for a while.

“When George got out, though, then me, it was tough going because we didn’t have much left in the batting. We thought we might have it in the bag, but in the end we just could not get over the line.”

Western Province’s remaining Africa T20 Cup pool A fixtures will be  against KwaZulu-Natal Inland and North West at the same venue, on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.