An action-packed day in South Africa saw Sri Lanka drop out of tournament contention during a last-ball thriller in Bloemfontein, but good luck to anyone trying to follow it
Shafiqullah Ghafari's googly was the principal weapon last Friday as Afghanistan asserted themselves as a formidable force for this year's World Cup, picking off hosts South Africa's meagre target in the tournament opener with 25 overs to spare.
Today, Farhan Zakhail's young men continued their superb start to the competition, with Ghafari finishing on 5-23 with a direct hit run-out to boot as 2018's fourth-placed side joined India in booking their place in the Super League stages by running out 160-run victors over the United Arab Emirates.
The two sides are the most experienced in official senior international matches, with UAE youngsters Vriitya Aravind, Jonathan Figy and Karthik Meiyappan having been fast-tracked into Dougie Brown's ODI setup in recent months, and Afghanistan boasting the tournament's only capped Test player in opening batsman Ibrahim Zadran.
But those experiences are patently different things, and the result in Potchefstroom today demonstrated that. Zadran batted through 39.4 overs for 87 chanceless runs, strolling to his second half-century of the tournament with 11 boundaries on the day.
In the same spot on the other side, Vriitya Aravind faced 53 balls for his 19 runs, only mustering eight runs in the 10-over powerplay before getting his pad between ball and stumps to become Ghafari's first victim of the day.
Jonathan Figy, centurion against Canada over the weekend, could not add to his tally – three deliveries was all it took for Ghafari to uproot his middle stump. One man who had more fortune was captain Aryan Lakra – not yet a senior regular, but certainly showing all the signs of being ready for the inevitable call – but even he fell foul of the legspinner's titanic form, being run out for a team-best 28 the very next over looking to scurry a single off Zadran but only finding the precise Ghafari at cover.
From 61 without loss, the UAE may well have fancied their chances of a second win, and even claiming their own place in the quarter-finals with a game to spare. Instead, having slumped to 105 all out, Saturday's clash with the hosts in Bloemfontein will be a do-or-die affair for both sides, and a tantalising (televised) finish to the Group D campaign.
Test batsman Ibrahim Zadran celebrates the run-out of UAE top-scorer Aryan Lakra
When The Cricketer evaluated South Africa's chances ahead of their first Under-19 World Cup venture on home soil since 1998, we made the point in our preview that their batting looked awfully fragile beyond the standout talents of Bryce Parsons and Jonathan Bird.
In the two years since the last tournament, the pair was responsible for 45 per cent of the country's Youth ODI runs, but Bird's first-over duck against Afghanistan on Friday set the tone for a stunning demolition job against the hosts, despite Parsons' classy 40 briefly holding back a tide of flummoxing wrist-spin.
Fortunately for the Proteas, today's outing against Canada was a rather different endeavour altogether. This time taking first strike instead of Andrew Louw, left-hander Bird calmly left four balls on his way to a match-opening maiden, and then thrashed the next two he faced to the cover boundary. He then pushed on to a brisk 44-ball half-century – his seventh 50-plus score in 17 games in the format – and raised the marker itself with a blistering flick over deep mid wicket.
While Bird may rue a squandered opportunity after falling just four runs later, the same accusation could not be levelled at Parsons after he continued his fine allround form by racing to the tournament's highest individual score so far. The captain finished with 121 from 90 balls in the middle – an innings that included 18 boundaries, and partnerships of 50 and 93 with Tyrese Karelse and Luke Beaufort respectively playing second fiddle.
The result was South Africa posting 349 for 8, rarely dipping beyond a run a ball and forcing themselves up to the country's second-largest Youth ODI total. Asking that of a novice Canada side was to ask for the biggest reply in the history of the format, and one 102 runs bigger than their previous best example.
And so South Africa cruised to victory by 150 runs, with wickets spread around the lineup. Two Canadians fell for every bowler bar skipper Parsons and Mondli Khumalo, the seamer whose two overs up top went for 20 as Mihir Patel tried to make early inroads before being caught behind off Merrick Brett.
Vancouver-born wicketkeeper Benjamin Calitz offered at least something in return, finishing unbeaten on 62 as his team stumbled home around him.
For Canada, after displaying healthy promise through the Americas qualifier and in the tournament warm-ups, defeat almost certainly ends their slim hopes of Super League progression.
Meanwhile, results both here and elsewhere in Potchefstroom will certainly save some blushes amongst the host nation, who will now know a win against the underperforming UAE on Saturday will put them through to the knockout rounds and allow Friday's curtain-raiser to fade into a distant memory.
South Africa skipper Bryce Parsons played his way to a maiden Youth ODI century
At the risk of sounding like a broken record in this column, it does seem immensely peculiar to the independent onlooker that an ICC World Cup is taking place without so much as a look-in for Pakistan on the TV schedule.
Twenty matches are getting full broadcast treatment from the governing body, but apparently that is not enough to see one of the game's most fanatical nations have even one of their Group C fixtures televised.
Certainly, watching Rohail Nazir's team rolling Scotland for 75 and then chase it in 11.4 overs might not have been the most captivating telly, but neither was a turgid clash between India and Sri Lanka on Sunday. Friday will inevitably see Pakistan and Bangladesh play out a thriller to close their pool efforts, but instead viewers will be treated to India likely handing out a thrashing to New Zealand before both teams qualify anyway.
Today, however, the board has no such excuse. Not one of the four fixtures received any broadcast coverage, despite New Zealand facing Sri Lanka at the Mangaung Oval – which hosted a televised game yesterday, and will do again on Friday – and South Africa playing at Potchefstroom's JB Marks Oval, the venue for five of the seven Super League knockout matches.
Pakistan's 38-run win over Zimbabwe might have taken place 300-odd kilometres away from the TV gear, but responsibility for that lies firmly with those in charge of scheduling, and instead those keen to check out a side that was initially meant to be featuring bona fide #FutureStar Naseem Shah today had to do so through four tweets on the tournament's official account and a dozen clips shot handheld from the boundary on the official website – and even two of those were duplicates.
So, what made this match worthy of a tweet describing it as an "excellent game of cricket"? One can only assume Mohammad Haris had something to do with it, as scorecards show the No.6 man blasted 81 from 48 balls to pick Pakistan out of a little mid-innings wobble to finish just shy of reaching 300. It's hard to confirm, though – all the website shows is a full-toss flying for six over square and a leading edge off Dylan Grant finding extra cover the next ball.
Zimbabwe's reply started positively, with Milton Shumba and Wesley Madhevere – both veterans of the 2016 and 2018 editions of the competition – tallying half-centuries. However, once Abbas Afridi hit the top of Shumba's off-stump with 87 still required from 11.3 overs, the side could not keep up and the prospect of a thriller faded.
Afridi had Tadiwanashe Marumani caught two balls later, and new ball partner Tahir Hussain came in to clear up the tail of Dylan Grant, Sakhumuzi Ndlela and Dane Schadendorf.
The latter man had at least managed an exquisite diving grab off Irfan Khan earlier on, following a tremendous stumping in a (live-streamed) warm-up game, but otherwise Zimbabwe's high hopes for their first major international tournament since readmission had been extinguished without so much as real acknowledgement from the governing body supposedly hosting it all.
Beckham Wheeler-Greenall and Adithya Ashok starred in a vital Group A fixture
With India predictably strolling away at a canter in Group A, New Zealand headed to the Mangaung Oval in desperate need of a win to stand any chance of making it into the Super League stages.
While Sri Lanka had opened their campaign on Sunday with a loss to the defending champions, they have the comfort of facing newcomers Japan this weekend for two very likely points. New Zealand faced Japan first up, but rain won the day before 30 overs had even been sent down, likely meaning that today's face-off in Bloemfontein would decide the silver medal and the all-important quarter-final place.
New Zealand ended up winning the day, but only after 99.5 overs of tense cricket and a chase of 243 that at several times threatened to throw itself off the rails.
Rhys Mariu and Beckham Wheeler-Greenall spent more than half the innings together, putting on 111 for the third wicket and each reaching steady 80s, but the talismanic Navod Paranavithana trapped one lbw and ran the other out out with nine balls remaining.
In the end, and not for the first time in this tournament, it all came down to a nerveless No.9, with Kristian Clarke mercilessly clearing Dilshan Madushanka over the square leg boundary to seal the result New Zealand craved. It was the highest Clarke had batted in 10 Youth ODI outings, but not the first vital contribution he had made in the game.
Tasked with bowling the final over of the Sri Lanka innings, and perhaps not quite realising just how critical he might later find his run-stemming efforts, Clarke picked off Ashen Daniel and Ahan Wickramasinghe, who had top-scored from No.8 with a last-ditch 64 from 48 balls having come to the crease at 141 for 6.
Despite being a side naturally familiar with spin-friendly conditions, Sri Lanka had been unable to build against Adithya Ashok (3-38) and Jesse Tashkoff (2-40), the two New Zealand bowlers to finish their full quotas.
The team had played more Youth ODI cricket than any other nation since the last World Cup, but today's result – and the elimination from tournament contention that it confirmed – shows just how little that experience can count for when the pressure is on.
Images: ICC / Getty
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