Home Sport Cricket Windies edge Junior Proteas in low-scoring 5th place play-off semi-final

Windies edge Junior Proteas in low-scoring 5th place play-off semi-final

The West Indies were also rocked by early departures early on as the SA Under-19s started their defence with great impetus.

The South Africa under-19s failed to bounce back from a disappointing defeat in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup Super League Quarter-final as they went down by four wickets to the Windies in the play-off semi-final on Saturday in Potchefstroom.

An impressive bowling display on a pitch that offered a lot to the bowlers helped the Caribbean outfit dismiss the Junior Proteas for 144. The Windies, led by captain, Konami Melius (29), then chased down the target with four wickets in hand, despite a commendable effort from the home side.

The SA Under-19s won the toss and elected to set a score but were pegged back with Jonathan Bird (13), captain, Bryce Parsons (7) and Luke Beaufort (9) falling early. Although wickets fell around him, opener, Levert Manje imposed himself well to get to a 63-ball 43 (3x4s, 2x6s) alongside wicket-keeper batman, Khanya Cotani (27) to get the hosts close to triple figures.

A run out of Manje then sparked a middle-order collapse, as four more wickets went down in quick succession to leave the home side reeling on 122/8.

Tiaan van Vuuren and Achille Cloete combined for a crucial 21 runs before the Windies wrapped up the innings, with Joshua James (2/25), Ashmead Need (2/12) and Matthew Patrick (2/12) all picking up wickets.

In their reply, the West Indies were also rocked by early departures early on as the SA Under-19s started their defence with great impetus.

However, an important 47-run partnership between Antonio Morris (26) and Patrick (25) edged the Windies closer to victory, before Nyeem Young (10) and Joshua James (15) chipped in with vital runs to help get their side over the line with 50 balls remaining.

The SA Under-19s will now face either Afghanistan or Australia in the Super League 7th place play-off final on Wednesday at Willowmoore Park in Benoni. The match starts at 10am.

Meanwhile, yesterday Zimbabwe picked themselves up after Friday’s loss to England in the Plate semi-final to register a 172-run win over Scotland in the 11th and 12th place play-off at the Diamond Oval.

Zimbabwe posted 354/8 and then dismissed Scotland for 182 as they cruised to an easy win.

After winning the toss, Zimbabwe had set about Scotland’s bowling with some vigour. An excellent second-wicket partnership between Milton Shumba and Tadiwanashe Marumani realised a brilliant 137 runs at the halfway stage of Zimbabwe’s innings.

Marumani was clean bowled by Charles Peet, just 10 runs short of his hundred, but the Scots could not capitalise with their fielding leaving a lot to be desired after dropping numerous catches and far too many misfields.

The pick of Scotland’s bowlers were Charles Peet 2/64, Ben Davidson 2/44 and Daniel Cairns 2/61

Scotland got off to a slow start and were never realistically in the game. Only Danny Cairns with his 58 and Ben Davidson (25) got going against Zimbabwe. The best Zimbabwe bowler was Priviledge Chesa who took 5/49 runs in his allotted 10 overs, and was named Man of the Match.

In Friday’s Plate semi-final, Zimbabwe came short against England when the English won the match also played at Diamond Oval by 76 runs.

In that game, England won the toss and decided to first and despite a shaky start they reached 286/9, leaving the Zimbabweans a chase at a rate of 5.7 runs per over.

Good knocks from George Hill (90 from 93 balls), Jordan Cox (59), George Balderson (45 not out) was too much for the Zimbabwean attack. The pick of the Zimbabwe bowlers was Wesley Madhevere with 4/42 from his 10 overs.

Zimbabwe started off their run chase at a blistering pace scoring at just on 8 runs per over but were bowled out for 211 in the 41st over with the best of the England bowlers being Balderson 3/29, Currie 2/42 and Goldsworthy 2/29, thus giving England the 76-run win.

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