Mumbai, Aug 15: South Africa, Ireland and Afghanistan posted wins by beating Sri Lanka, Nepal and Scotland in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. With three wins out of three, South African along with Australia who also have six points under their belt have reached the quarter-finals of the premium tournament.
South Africa beat Sri Lanka by four wickets in the low scoring Group D match in Brisbane. After choosing to field first, the SA U19s bundled out SL for 150 in 37.4 overs. Corne Dry, opening the bowling for the young Proteas claimed four wickets while Solo Nqweni and Calvin Savage picked two wickets apiece. Coming in at No. 9 Pulina Tharanga made an unbeaten 50 until he ran out of partners.
SA then reached the target with 17 overs to spare. Opener Chad Bowes missed out on his half-century by four runs when he was dismissed by Tharindu Kaushal. The off-spinner claimed two more wickets, including that of Theunis de Bruyn (42) to finish with three for 28. Dry was awarded the Man-of-the-match for his match-winning performance with the ball.
Ireland beat Nepal by 14 runs after opting to bat first and setting them a 186-run target. Although they lost three early wickets and were struggling at three for 35, the middle-order helped Ireland reach a modest total. Andy McBrine (41) and Shane Getkate (47) steadied the innings with a 71-run partnership until the former lost his stumps to Bhuvan Karki. 23 runs later he also trapped Getkate leg before. With an unbeaten 39, Tyrone Kane took the Irish to 185 for the loss of eight wickets.
Led by Geroge Dockrell who picked four for 22, Ireland wrapped-up Nepal’s innings for 171. Graeme McCarter gave them their first breakthrough with the wicket of Sagar Pun in the fifth over and after that Nepal kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Pradeep Airee (29) and Rahul Vishvakarma (32) put up a fight lower down the order but their efforts were in vain as Nepal lost the game with three deliveries to spare. Dockrell received the Man-of-the-Match for his four-wicket haul.
Afghanistan beat Scotland by 10 runs at the John Blanck Oval.
Opening the innings for Afghanistan captain Javed Ahmadi scored 71 after electing to bat against Scotland. While the rest of the batting line-up crumbled without offering much resistance, wicketkeeper batsman Afsar Khan’s 44 later in the innings helped his team reach 191. Gavin Main and Ruaidhri Smith claimed four wickets each to help warp-up the Afghanistan innings in 48.3 overs.
Afghanistan’s Sayed Shirzad dealt an early blow by trapping Scotland opener Mathew Cross lbw for nought. At the other end Ross McLean anchored the innings with 67 but Scotland failed to build partnerships. Andrew Umeed who replaced Cross was run out for 20 and a while later Freddie Coleman was sent back for 30 by Aftab Alam. After that the Scotland Under 19s kept losing wickets at frequent intervals. And with McLean back in the pavilion in the 39th over it was an uphill task for the Scots as they lost wickets in quick succession. They were all out for 181 with four balls remaining in the innings. Ahmadi was named the Man-of-the-Match for his batting efforts.
