U19 World Cup 2018, Day 10- Round-up

The 2018 ICC U19 World Cup in New Zealand has entered the knock-out phases and the tenth day was a witness to the first of the quarter-final of the Super League between England and Australia. While the English team was unbeaten in the Group stages, Australia finished second on the table courtesy a heavy defeat against Prithvi Shaw’s Indian team.

However, the Aussies punched above their weight, defeated England and stormed to the semi-final of the tournament. In a picturesque stadium in Queenstown, Jason Sangha & Co. won the toss and elected to bat first. However, the English fast bowlers got the lid over them and pushed them on the back-foot from the outset.

The likes of Ethan Bamber and Dillon Pennington extracted prodigious seam movement from the wickets and caught Australia napping. Consequently, the Kangaroos found themselves in all sorts of trouble having lost six wickets in the opening 16 overs. However, skipper Sangha put his hand up and gracefully countered England’s bowling masterclass with a mature knock of 58 runs off 91 balls.

It guided Australia over the 100-run mark and they eventually set a modest target of 128 runs. Barring Sangha, the second highest score was 16 by Max Byrant, which showed Australia’s horror show with the bat. The chase was expected to be a cakewalk for the Englishmen and they bludgeoned away to a blistering start.

Opener Tom Banton kicked England’s run-chase off with some scorching boundaries. The opening stand fetched 47 runs in double quick time and Australia needed something miraculous to turn their fortunes in the game. However, they had a certain Lloyd Pope who wreaked havoc in the English batting lineup with his dexterous leg-breaks and left them in tatters.

England were severely jolted by Pope’s guile and trajectory as they were left clueless against the tweaker. Consequently, England slumped to a dramatic collapse and lost their 10 wickets for 49 runs with a space of 97 balls. Meanwhile, Pope recorded the best bowling figures in Under-19 World Cups surpassing Jason Ralston’s seven-wicket haul against Papua New Guinea a couple of days ago.

The Plate League

In the Plate Group, the Windies and Ireland locked horns in the Quarter-Final of a 9th place Play-off game at Lincoln. After winning the toss, Ireland set a competitive target of 279 runs for the Windies to trace down. Neil Rock and Harry Tector’s impressive performances guided the Irish to the competitive total. For the Windies, Jeavor Royal nipped out three wickets.

During the run-chase, the Windies struggled and lost wickets at crunch moments. Emmanuel Stewart and Bhaskar Yadram scored half-centuries to set the ball rolling for the Windies. However, it was Nyeem Young’s blistering half-century that bailed them out of jail and guided the Windies over the finishing line.

In the second Quarter-Final of the 9th place Play-off at Lincoln, Sri Lanka thumped Kenya by a mammoth 311 runs. After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Sri Lanka racked up a humungous 419/4 runs. Hasitha Boyagoda took the Kenyan bowlers to the cleaners and raced away to 191 runs.

Chasing the massive score, Kenya were never in contention for a comeback as hardly posed any threat to the Lankan bowlers. Thomas Ochieng top-scored for the Kenyans with 45 runs off 63 balls. However, apart from him, every other batsman struggled and they fell way short of Sri Lanka’s score

England v Australia, Quarter-Final, Queenstown

Australia: 127 all out in 33.3 overs; Jason Sangha 58, Max Byrant 16; Will Jacks 3/21, Dillon Pennington 3/27

England: 96 all out in 23.4 overs; Tom Banton 58, Jack Davies 11; Lloyd Pope 8/35, Param Uppal 1/12

Australia beat England by 31 runs

Player of the Match: Lloyd Pope

Windies v Ireland, 9th place Play-off Quarter-Final, Lincoln

Ireland: 278/8 in 50 overs; Neil Rock 91, Harry Tector 69; Jeavor Royal 3/59, Ronaldo Alimohamed 2/31

West Indies: 281/6 in 48.1 overs; Nyeem Young 55*, Bhaskar Yadram 53; Max Neville 2/53, Morgan Topping 1/40

Windies beat Ireland by four wickets

Player of the Match: Nyeem Young

Sri Lanka v Kenya, 9th place Play-off Quarter-Final, Lincoln

Sri Lanka: 419/4 in 50 overs; Hasitha Boyagoda 191, Nishan Madushka 60; Abhishekh Chidambaram 2/68, Rene Were 1/52

Kenya: 108 all out in 35.5 overs; Thomas Ochieng 45, Aman Gandhi 16; Haren Buddila 4/27, Nipun Malinga 2/14

Sri Lanka beat Kenya by 311 runs

Player of the Match: Hasitha Boyagoda