Afghanistan U19 made their life difficult, but Australia U19 won the third-place playoff of the ICC U19 World Cup on February 4. The low-scoring game played at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua saw the team from Down Under come out on top by two wickets.
The Afghanis won the toss and opted to bat first, hoping to post a sizeable score on the board. But their hopes were dashed by a brilliant bowling performance from Australia, as they dismissed the opposition for only 201 runs.
Nivethan Radhakrishnan (3/31) and William Salzmann (3/43) were the pick of the bowlers for Australia, while their skipper Cooper Connolly (2/30) also chipped in with important breakthroughs. The rest of the bowling attack kept things tight, putting Afghanistan under huge pressure.
Things could easily have been worse for the Afghans, who required an impressive knock of 81 off 79 balls from Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai just to make it past the 200-mark. The rest of the batting unit, barring maybe Mohammad Ishaq (34) and captain Suliman Safi (37), left much to be desired.
In the second half, the Aussies rode on the wave created by the half-centuries from opener Campbell Kellaway (51) and No.3 Radhakrishnan (66) to reach a position of strength. They found themselves 113/1 at one stage and looked like sealing an easy victory.
Just then, however, they suffered regular blows, which gave Afghanistan an outside chance. The middle-order had Isaac Higgins (11), Lachlan Shaw (13) and Corey Miller (13) all getting starts but none carrying on to play a substantial innings.
In the end, the Aussies would’ve felt grateful to the effort by their bowlers and Kellaway-Radhakrishnan stand that they made it past the finish line with two wickets intact and five balls left in the proceedings.
For Afghanistan, it was Nangeyalia Kharote (3/35), Shahidullah Hasani (2/44) and Noor Ahmad (2/43) who made a match out of it.
Brief scores
Afghanistan U19 201/10 in 49.2 overs (Ahmadzai 81; Radhakrishnan 3/31, Salzmann 3/43) lost to Australia U19 202/8 in 49.1 overs (Radhakrishnan 66, Kellaway 51; Kharote 3/35) by 2 wickets
