Denmark went into their opening match in the ICC World Cricket League - Division 2 tournament in Windhoek, Namibia with high expectations. Their training here had gone very well under the expert eyes of Peter Palle Klokker and Neil Foster and they were on a 6 match winning streak. They had the misfortune to meet the in-form hosts, Namibia, in conditions that were quite alien to them at the Wanderers Club today.

Freddie Klokker won the toss and had little hesitation in electing to bat first. The tall strongly built Namibian opening bowlers found conditions very much to their liking. The pitch proved to be very fast and very bouncy – with balls regularly bouncing to shoulder height from just short of a good length. Michael Pedersen, who has much experience of playing on fast pitches in Australia, later described it as the fastest pitch he had ever encountered. Wickets fell regularly and Danmark found themselves at 40 for 6 wickets after 20 overs. Things did not improve much and they were all out for 77 in 29.1 overs. Extras were the highest scorer with 18 followed by David Borchersen with 13 from 16 deliveries.

Reducing Namibia to 6 for 2 in the 3rd over gave Denmark some hope but the bowlers failed to find the same good length as the opposition in the face of a brutal assault by Gerry Snyman whose undefeated 60 came from just 30 deliveries with 2 sixes and 11 fours. It took Namibia just 11.5 overs to pass the Danmark total.

Speaking after the match, coach Neil Foster said that our batsman had found great difficulty in adjusting to the pitch and that the bowlers had failed to hit the same good length as their counterparts. He remained very optimistic for the remaining matches in the tournament. The pitches on the two other grounds used in the competition had not proved to be as quick or as bouncy as that at the Wanderers.

In the other matches today, UAE easily overcame a modest Uganda total, a match in which Danish umpire, Niels Bagh officiated, and newly promoted Argentina failed by just 18 runs to chase down the Oman score of 269".