Favourties Australia U19 and Pakistan U19 make a winning start whereas Bangladesh U19 overcome Srilanka U19 in close encounter.

Group A: Australia U19 147/4 defeats England U19 143 by 6 wickets

Travis Head leads Australia U19 to victory against England U19 in tense match

In a pitch where there will be good assistance for bowlers particularly with early moisture, Australia without any hesitation choose to field first after winning the toss. Their bowlers took the opportunity and rattled English batsmens, who found hard to get any kind of partnership going. Australia dismissed England for paltry 143 runs with Overton 35 being the top score.

In a low but tight chase, England put Australia immediately on mat by taking a wicket in second ball of the innings. Australia like England, struggled to get away against new ball and found themselves in spot of bother with the score of 54/4 from just 13 overs. Then, captain Bosisto (35*) and highly rated Travis Head (57*) put on unbeaten stand of 93 runs for sixth wicket. This partnership took Australia to victory after initial struggle. Travis Head scored a superb fifty at a brisk pace considering how difficult other batsmens found it to score and was rightly named as player of the match.

Group B: Pakistan U19 253/6 defeated Afghanistan U19 144 by 106 runs

A one sided match saw dangerous Pakistan cruising Afghanistan in the opening match of group B. Afghanistan won the toss and rightly decided to field first but after that, all went wrong for them. Pakistan after starting cautiously, piled on the runs towards the end. Mohammed Nawaz quick fire 66 took Pakistant to 253/6 after captain Babar Azlam made a brilliant 72 at start.

Afghanistan in reply began aggressively but fell apart rapidly due to raising required rate and controlled Pakistan attack. Zia-ul-Haq took 4 wickets as Afghanistan where dismissed for just 144 runs.

Group C: Zimbabwe U19 249 defeated Papua New Guinea 145 by 104 runs

Zimbabwe had their way easy against low profile Papua New Guinea team in Group C. Batting first on rather placed deck, Zimbabwe were off to a great start as their openers put on 109 runs for 1st wicket. Opener Kasuza (97) narrowly missed the well deserved century as Zimbabwe finished with 249 runs in 50 overs. Despite batting for 38 overs, Papua New Guinea were never in the chase against superior Zimbabwe team. In the end, Zimbabwe took a massive win in a largely one sided affair.

Group D: Bangladesh U19 249/7 defeated Srilanka 224 by 25 runs

Captain Azam lead from the front with century to get 2 crucial points from the all important group D encounter.

Probably the match of the day considering the importance of this match to both sides for their quarter finals hope. Bangladesh were asked to bat first and they responded superbly despite losing the openers cheaply. Captain Haque scored a determined 101 as he and Asif Hamed (84) manipulated the Lankan bowlers in middle. But Srilanka came back strongly in last 10 overs to take 5 wickets for 66 runs and stop Bangladesh at 249 runs, after doing poorly in first 40 overs where they conceded 183 runs for 2 wickets.

In return, Srilanka were off to a good start with 40 runs from 7 overs but soon after, Bangladesh strike back at them. Srilanka lost four wickets for next 18 runs and match suddenly tilted against them. Jayasinghe and Madushanka fought back and put on a 85 run sixth wicket partnership, clawing Srilanka slowly back into the match. But the runout of Madushanka opened the gate for Bangladesh who took full advantage of it. Srilanka struggled to accelerate with just 4 wickets in hand at last 10 overs. In the end, they fell short of the target and gave Bangladesh a crucial two points.

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