CRICKET:IRELAND CAME up just one Burger short of chewing up all of Namibia's first innings and claiming full honours on the first day of their Intercontinental Cup decider in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, yesterday.
The African side contain four Burgers in their line-up, but it was skipper Louis that kept Ireland at bay at a sunny St George's Park, battling to an undefeated 72 as his side finished on 241 for nine.
It had looked like being considerably less when Namibia were reduced to 119 for six in the 51st over, but Louis Burger and Bjorn Kotze would put on 91 for the seventh wicket to get past the 200 mark.
Boyd Rankin ended their resistance after taking the new ball, claiming his second wicket when Kotze was trapped leg-before after a hard-fought 43.
Peter Connell followed that with two wickets in the next over to leave them on 212 for nine.
It was Connell's fourth wicket of the day and 22nd in just five matches in the tournament, but Kola Burger would exact a degree of revenge when he spanked him for four boundaries in the penultimate over of the day, finishing unbeaten on 22 off just 11 balls when stumps were drawn.
Louis Burger believes his side can add to their total this morning and set a decent first innings total.
"I think 240 looks a lot better now than it did earlier today. Overall, I am happy enough and hopefully we can go out in the morning and score a few more runs. If we can bat another 10 or 20 overs that would be ideal."
