Namibia Under-19 have had a memorable tournament so far, including victory against defending champions South Africa © ICC
Namibia Under-19s may have slumped to an eight-wicket defeat, but Norbert Manyande, the team’s coach, was happy that Bangladesh Under-19 took his side seriously. Manyande claimed that the grass had been shaved off from the pitch at the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium in order to counter Namibia’s pace attack.
“Bangladesh knew our seam bowling is very good for the way we bowled against South Africa and against Scotland as well,” Manyande said. “We have been here [in Cox’s Bazar] for two weeks and have played in this venue once and today was the first time I saw the pitch without grass. So we definitely gave them something to think about. Whether people will accept that or not, that’s up to them.
“Once we give a Test side to think of something like that then we know that we are here not to mess around, we are here to play cricket. And they did their homework, they are the home side and the won the game. There is no doubt that they played really well and we learned a lot out of it as well.”
Manyande felt Namibia now go into the quarter-final against India having learned more about playing spin, though they were shot out for 65 in 32.5 overs against Bangladesh.
“Moving forward, I don’t think we are going to face any spin attack as good as Bangladesh, as far as we have seen so far. So moving forward we are quite confident that we will still be able to win one or two games and surprise someone again.
“We are here to compete. We have learned a lot from spin bowling from the Bangladesh game. In the next game we are looking to improve a lot more facing the spin bowling.”
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo