Zimbabwe crush Namibia to claim Men’s Cricket gold medal

Namibia 113/7 in 20 overs (Dylan Leicher 29, JP Kotze 26, Malan Kruger 22; Kudakwashe Macheka 1-14, Wallace Mubaiwa 1-15)

Zimbabwe 114/2 in 14.5 overs (Tadiwanashe Marumani 58, Rodney Mupfudza 24; Peter-Daniel Blignaut 2-12)

Zimbabwe won by eight wickets

Zimbabwe put on a clinical performance to decimate Namibia by nine wickets in a Gold Medal match at the African Games in Ghana on Saturday.

Namibia won the toss and decided to bat, and lost the wicket of the dangerous Nikolaas Davin, with the score on three, in the first over.

Soon after JP Kotze came on and smashed a four. He was dropped off the next ball at mid-on off the bowling of Kudakwashe Macheka. Trevor Gwandu could not hold on to a regulation catch.

He went on to make 26, the second highest score behind Dylan Leicher whose contribution was 29.

Zimbabwe gave very few runs away as they strangled the Namibian innings.

Elton Chigumbura’s men were on the hunt, and they did so in packs with some brilliant fielding, restricting Namibia to 113 for the loss of seven.

Zimbabwe started slowly as the ball failed to come onto the bat with ease until the opening pair of Tadiwanashe Marumani and Rodney Mupfudza opened up the field with some aggressive hitting.

Marumani smashed three boundaries in a row in the fifth off the bowling of Handre Klazinge.

Peter-Daniel Blignaut got the breakthrough when Mupfudza was stumped on 24, to break the 55-run opening stand.

Marumani was joined by the energetic Johnathan Campbell and the pace picked up, largely due to an appetite for singles and twos from the pair.

They were ruthless, and even though Blignaut got Marumani for 58, the game was gone and Zimbabwe won the match with 25 balls to spare.

The win means gold has gone to Zimbabwe men and women as cricket makes its debut at the African Games.