Holland claimed the ICC Trophy with a thrilling last ball victory by
two wicket over Namibia here at the Toronto Cricket Curling and
Skating Club Sunday (partly reported in Monday's edition).
Both Holland and Namibia have already qualified for the 2003 World Cup
with the third spot for the South frican tournament to be decided when
Scotland face hosts Canada in the all-important qualifying final
Tuesday.
On Sunday, though, Holland won the battle of the giants in the nerveshattering, fate-fluctuating final. The Dutchmen relied on the batting
of Jacob Jan Esmeijer and Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk, who both struck
half centuries as Holland reached 196 for eight.
Noortwijk scored exactly 50 with the help of five boundaries before
being bowled by B. Kotze, Man-of-the-Match Jacob Jan Esmeijer, who is
better known as JJ, cracked unbeaten 58 off 51 balls.
Esmeijer came to the crease when the chips were down. Six wickets had
gone with 106 runs on the board and the Namibians had every reason to
be hopeful of victory. But JJ changed the whole complexion of the game
scoring runs on each and every ball to keep the scoreboard moving. He
hit two towering sixes and as many boundaries to help his team to
reach victory spot.
"We never thought the fight in the ICC Trophy final will be so tough,"
Roland Lefebvre, Holland skipper, said after the match.
"At one stag, we needed something very special and JJ certainly gave
us something very special," he said. "Towards the end of the game,
both teams were under great pressure."
Lefebvre noted the Namibians were more nervous and as a result there
were a lot of misfields, a lot of fumbles, a lot of twos which they
gave away. "I think we capitalized on that, kept going, and played
quite cleverly. JJ hit a couple of big ones but there was a lot of
twos and quick singles taken to get us close to the target."