SA U19s bow out of World Cup
The South Africa under-19s were eliminated from the running for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 when they suffered a four-wicket semifinal defeat to Australia on Tuesday. South Africa had been undefeated in the tournament thus far. They did not have a good day in all the disciplines of the game and that, coupled with a bit of bad luck, ensured they exited the tournament prematurely.
South Africa will now play off for third place on Saturday.
“It was a bad toss to lose today, the Australian attack were on the button from ball one and they didn’t give us anything to hit. They put us under pressure from the beginning,” said a disappointed Chad Bowes, captain of the side.
Australia put the South Africans in to bat after winning the toss and restricted them to 191/8 after their allotted overs. The bowling attack were effective up front, taking the two early wickets of Quinton De Kock (1) and Gihahn Cloete (0) in the first two overs.
Bowes and Theunis de Bruyn shared a 33-run partnership which steadied the ship for a short period before De Bruyn was caught behind off the bowling of Gurinder Sandhu for 16.
They attempted a comeback when Bowes, together with Murray Coetzee, added 88 more runs to the scoreboard to lead South Africa out of trouble. The batting power play did not work the way they had hoped as Bowes lost his wicket in the 36th over for 46 runs for the third time in a row, putting his team on 125/4 and in need of more runs.
Coetzee, the highest run scorer for South Africa in the match, scored 50 from 76 balls and miscommunication resulted in a run out dismissal just when South Africa needed him to stick around the most. Calvin Savage (15) and Prenelan Subrayen (30) managed to pull things back with their 38-run, seventh-wicket partnership, but the team still felt 20 runs short.
The bowlers had a fairytale start when Lizaad Williams struck early, removing Jimmy Peirson to the second ball of the innings and Meyrich Buchanan was bowled by Corné Dry in at the end of the second. Both were out for a duck.
Man of the match, Cameron Bancroft (66) and Kurtis Patterson (49) added 95 runs for the third wicket to frustrate the visitors. Bancroft went on to share a 75-run partnership with William Bosisto (40*) to end South Africa’s hopes of progressing in the tournament.
“We struck twice in the first few overs to put us on the front foot,” Bowes continued. “But from there, the Australians put on a good partnership. We weren’t disciplined with our bowling and our fielding was not good enough.”
South Africa had a nightmare in the field, dropping four catches, three of which were off Savage, and the bowlers gave away 27 runs in extras.
“We just didn’t take our chances and slipped up in our fielding. If we want to win a World Cup, we need to start performing in the field the way we know we can,” Bowes added.
They did not sit back in defeat, howeve; they fought to the very last ball. They took three wickets in the final seven overs, but it was too late to consolidate those efforts.
“Australia were the better team on the day and it’s back to the drawing board for us, looking ahead to the third and fourth position play off on Saturday,” he concluded. — CSA Report