Career-best knocks by captain Kotze and Scholtz give Namibia good start against Canada

Namibia 314 for 6 (B Kotze 87*, Scholtz 64, Verwey 49*, Soraine 3-54) v Canada
Scorecard

Captain Bjorn Kotze and Nicholaas Scholtz achieved personal bests to provide Namibia with a positive start to its ICC Intercontinental Cup campaign against Canada at Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Windhoek, Namibia on Thursday.

Kotze was undefeated on 87 and Scholtz scored 64, his maiden first-class half century, as the home team finished the opening day's play at 314-6 after electing to bat first.

Kotze and Scholtz put on 94 runs for the sixth wicket after Namibia was reduced to 135-5, with Canadian medium-pacer Durand Soraine causing the initial damage to finish the day with figures of 3-52.

After the departure of Scholtz, who faced 123 balls and hit nine boundaries, Kotze found another good ally in Tobias Verwey and the two have so far added 85 runs for the unfinished seventh wicket.

Verwey is unbeaten on 49 from just 48 balls with six fours and a six.

Kotze, whose previous best was 57, batted with concentration and application after the Namibia top order batsmen, except for debutant Raymond van Schoor (46) and Gerrie Snyman (35), failed to convert good starts into big scores.

Kotze, better known for picking the scalps of Australian Damien Martyn and the Pakistani duo of Mohammad Yousuf and Saeed Anwar during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 in South Africa, reached his second career half century from 129 balls and has so far faced 215 balls with eight fours.

The ICC Intercontinental Cup has quickly grown in stature and profile since its inception three years ago and now ICC's premier first-class tournament is an integral part of the Associate Members' cricket schedule.

Having previously been designed around a two-group, three-day format, the event has evolved into an eight-team, round-robin and truly global tournament featuring four-day cricket which gives those teams which do not play Test cricket the chance to experience the longer form of the game.

Scotland won the first ICC Intercontinental Cup in 2004, beating Canada in the final, while Ireland has been victorious in both events since then, beating Kenya in the 2005 decider and Canada earlier this year in the 2006/07 event.

The final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup 2007/08 will take place in November 2008 at a venue yet to be decided.