The Under 19s Thread

[The Professor]

Yesterday the gulf between these teams was made even more clear when the bottom placed Cayman Islands were beaten by second bottom placed Argentina by 101 runs.

The Cayman Islands, who had previously scored 29, 77 and 50, got 132 - by far their best score of the tournament however they fell well short of the 233-8 Argentina scored. The stand out player for Argentina was Axel Horowitz who got 3-31.

Canada and America finished first and second with Bermuda in third.

[The Professor]

I see Aryan Dutt is still turning out for the Under 19s after having made his debut for the senior team....can't be many times that's happened before.

[The Professor]

Watched a genuinely thrilling Under 19 game between Rwanda and Nigeria. Rwanda were all out for 125 - a target Nigeria looked very comfortable in getting despite regular fall of wickets. They lost their eigth wicket needing 15 but Destiny Chilemanya was protecting the lower order. They were 4 runs away in the 39th over before Rwana struck twice in two balls to end the game in their favour. What a game for Rwanda to claim in their first win of the World Cup qualification event in which the top team alone qualify. That team is Tanzania at the moment with two from two.

[The Professor]

England Under 19s are having it sbsolutely handed to them by Sri Lanka Under 19s at the moment in a series of ODIs.

After winning the first game, England have been soundly beaten in the other three. No English batter is in the top 3 highest runscorers or wicket takers. Instead it leaves me to praise Pawan Pathiraja who has scored 5, 113, 17 and 60 and Dunith Wellalage with 9 wickets.

[The Professor]

A very run heavy game between England and Sri Lanka Under 19s saw the tourists pip the young Englishmen with a thrilling chase in the dying dregs of the final day.

The game was very metronomic throughout. Practically one innings per day and one century per team. First up was Lancashire’s George Bell who got 107 in the first innings. He and Durham’s Ross Whitfield put on an impressive 185 run third wicket partnership, however the rest of the established batters all got a start but did not kick on. Bell’s century (and doesn’t it feel good to say that again) came in a mere 88 balls. Bell-ball perhaps? England were all out towards the end of Day One.

Day Two was dominated by the batting heroics of Asith Wanninayake. The young Kurunegala batter batted grittily all day long on Day Two and went to stumps on 132* off 314 balls. Gallingly (or maybe Galle-ingly) he was removed for the gain of no run on the morning of Day Three, however the tail held on and Sri Lanka managed to close on 407 – a lead of 20.

Ross Whitfield then added to his impressive haul of 86 in the first dig to then get a century of his own in England’s second innings – this was not as quick as Bell’s on the first day but a strike rate of 82.08 is a decent lick. Again, the scores around him were not as impressive and England could only muster 292, which set Sri Lanka a target of 273.

England would have been confident of the win at 48-4 and then again at 95-8 but Ranuda Somarathne decided to fight fire with fire and got a more than run a ball century for Sri Lanka to close it out with minutes left in the day’s play.

A thoroughly entertaining 4 days 0 with another one scheduled for Derby, starting on Sunday.

[The Professor]

With three over left before stumps, the 202-run fourth wicket partnership has been broken.

Matthew Hurst of Lancashire's 116-run vigil was terminated by a short ball. England finishes the day with 262 for 4.

[The Professor]

Promising young wicket keeper batter Shevon Daniel made the most of the batting today as hw made his way to stumps on 92* as Sri Lanka went a long way towards their target of 381. They have lost only 2 wickets and have cut the lead to a mere 178 after Day Two.

[Durhamfootman]

I note that Durham's Stanley McAlindon is playing

[The Professor]

On day three, the Sri Lankans added 110 runs for the seventh wicket, extending their lead to almost 100 runs. As a result, Derby's final day will most likely result in a tie. Vinuja Rampaul's 108-ball 65 was the most noteworthy performance.

[The Professor]

With very passing session, the final Youth Test between England and Sri Lanka turned more and more into a glorified net session as each team exhibited their batting prowess.

Day One was dominated by a fourth wicket partnership that was worth 202 runs that was only broken with three overs left in the day as Lancashire’s Matthew Hurst had his innings terminated by a short ball to see England end the day on 264-2.

They added a further 140 runs in the morning session on Day Two before promising all-rounder Shevon Daniel stuck his hand up and batted throughout the rest of Day Two and throughout the morning session of Day Three to claim 155 runs. The Sri Lankan tail did not crumble, in fact they became more aggressive as Vinuja Ranpul, bagged an 108 ball 65. Day Three ended with the Sri Lankans holding a 99 run lead.

Eternal optimists may have hoped for the Sri Lankans to declare at the start of Day 4 but there was no such luck as the game rumbled on. Sri Lanka batted their innings out for 542 which meant that England had a glorified net session in the afternoon. One that their captain, Durham's Ben McKinney, impressed with - scoring 74 from 104 balls

[The Professor]

The first ODI between England Under 19s and Sri Lanka Under 19s is one of those ones I find tricky to write about.

The Sri Lankans batted almost all of their full allocation before the heavens opened with them on 248-9. This would have been a challenging target and set up a good game....but so prolific was the rain in Worcester that it only allowed England the chance to chase down 172 in 25 overs. They nearly screwed this up by losing wickets very regularly but managed to get there in the final over.

One thing that is clear is that Nottinghamshire's Fateh Singh was the player of the match with figures of 3-49.

[The Professor]

It has been an especially battter friendly series with 7 centuries scored across both teams. Despite England's overall success, the top three highest scores were all from Sri Lankans. Shevon Daniel's 155 was the highest score in the 2nd ODI and Ranuda Somarathne had the most runs overall with 161.

Lancashire's Tom Aspinwall registered the best figures of 4- 67 in the first innings to round of a good series for Lancastrians. His 6 wickets was the most of anyone in the three games.

[Durhamfootman]

a couple of wickets and a run out for Killer jnr