Pakistan Under-19s improved on their already impressive bowling performance in the first one-dayer to rout Australia Under-19s for 139, setting up a seven-wicket victory that clinched the three-match series. A succession of useful contributions from the top-order batsmen allowed the visitors to reach the target with 15.2 overs to spare.
Pakistan had dismissed Australia for 187 in the first match, after choosing to field, and Babar Azam asked the hosts to bat once again. Australia reached 14 before losing their first two wickets in the space of three runs. The promising Kurtis Patterson was run out for a duck.
They slipped to 53 for 4 before Cameron Bancroft and Travis Head had a 52-run partnership. However, they too fell in quick succession and after that the end was swift. Fast bowler Zia-ul-Haq claimed 3 for 20 in seven overs, while Azizullah and Ehsan Adil conceded less than two runs per over.
Australia’s bowlers struck at regular intervals but they needed to knife through the Pakistan line-up to pose a challenge and they were unable to do so. All of the top five batsmen got past 20 and Saad Ali raised the tempo, scoring 36 off 33 balls to secure victory in the 35th over.
“We started quite well at the top with Peirson and Bancroft and we were quite aggressive but unfortunately in the batting side of things there wasn’t many positives after that,” Patterson said after the defeat. “The bowling was good early on, we bowled quite patiently but at the end of the day 139 is just not really enough.
“We have gone two games in a row now where we have massively underachieved and especially today as the pitch was even better, to only get 140 on a flat wicket is really under par and we need to particularly work on our play to spin as well as our play to pace as well.”
Brief Scores: – Pakistan Under-19s, 140 for 3 in 34.4 overs (Ali 36*) beat Australia Under-19s 139 all out (Bancroft 47, Zia-ul-Haq 3-20) by seven wickets.
