New Zealand has been bundled out of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in the quarter finals, going down to Australia by 62 runs.
The day started badly for the Kiwis when Australia won the toss and elected to bat and although New Zealand restricted Australia’s total with a good bowling effort, the Australians produced a solid all-round performance which was led by captain and man of the match Mitchell Marsh.
Marsh combined with opener Nic Maddinson for a second wicket partnership of 69 and was the dominant partner striking 53 off 59 deliveries including seven boundaries. It took a brilliant piece of fielding by Harry Boam to dismiss the Australian captain who threw down the stumps with only one to aim at.
Marsh identified the stand between him and Maddinson as the key to setting the Kiwis a tough total of 232, “That was obviously our goal to have a strong partnership at the top of the innings and it set us up to get a pretty good total on this wicket,” he said.
The wickets were shared amongst the New Zealand bowlers with Small, Wheeler, Van Beek, Johnston and Boam all taking one apiece. Spinner
Tim Johnston was New Zealand’s best bowler with conceding just 36 runs from his ten overs.
In reply, New Zealand couldn’t gain any momentum with dark skies over head and rain threatening the New Zealand batsmen were continually trying to force the pace to keep up with the required run rate. Australia’s bowlers were on target and managed to remove most of the heavy hitters at the top of the New Zealand order.
Captain Craig Cachopa tried to lead a fight back with a hard fought 34, but it was in vain as wickets continued to tumble at the other end. The New Zealand captain eventually fell to an outstanding catch by Tom Beaton at midwicket off the bowling of Luke Doran. Once he was gone New Zealand lost any chance of chasing down the target, and they were eventually all out for 170 in the 44th over.
* Image of Australian captain Mitchell Marsh who raises his bat after reaching 50.
