Australia U19’s beaten by Pakistan in second ODI

The Australian Under 19 team had a disappointing day on the Gold Coast, losing the second ODI against Pakistan Under 19 by seven wickets with Pakistan passing the target set by Australia with 15.2 overs to spare.

Pakistan won the toss and again opted to start with the ball at Kerrydale Oval in sunny conditions.

Western Australia’s Cameron Bancroft and South Australia’s Travis Head both had a decent performance with the bat scoring 47 and 43 runs respectively in Australia’s total of 139 in 43.1 overs.

In reply, Pakistan got off to a good start and although Australia claimed a couple of early wickets in the first 15 overs, Pakistan’s top-order made light work of the modest total set by Australia.

Captaining the Australian side for today’s match, New South Wales’ Kurtis Patterson said: “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.

“The bowling was good early on, we bowled quite patiently but at the end of the day 139 is just not really enough.

Patterson said the side needed to improve their batting for the final match on Friday.

“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,” he added.

The Australian Under 19 team will play Pakistan in the third of three ODIs on Friday August 3 at Kerrydale Oval in Robina. The head-to-head series is serving as a warm-up for the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup to be played in Queensland from August 11-26.

For a full scorecard from the game, please click here.

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!