The Under 19 cricket world cup has been taking place in South Africa with quite a few of the games being shown live on Sky Sports. Unfortunately the England side have not really distinguished themselves, as they failed to qualify for the quarter final stage, after losing to Australia off the last ball of their decisive group game. That contest all came down to some fine hitting at the end by the Australian tail-enders.
However England have the chance of a consolation prize by qualifying for the Plate Final (the second tier competition) when they play Sri Lanka on Monday. They got there by beating Zimbabwe yesterday in a fairly high scoring affair, in which England made 286-9 and then bowled Zimbabwe out for 211.Top score for England came from Yorkshireman George Hill, who did not play in the early games, followed by Kent wicket keeper Jordan Cox with 59 and skipper George Balderson, from Lancashire with 45 not out.
England's George Hill.
The two semi-finals take place next week, between India and Pakistan on Tuesday and New Zealand face Bangladesh on Thursday. The favourites may well be the winners of the first game and New Zealand, following the recent performance of their senior side, may well be glad the 'super over' does not apply in this competition. The final takes place a week tomorrow on Sunday 9th February.
All the other teams are still involved playing for each place in the final table. West Indies, who looked very strong in the group matches, surprisingly failed to qualify for the semi-finals, but today beat South Africa in their play off match. The highlight today was perhaps the battle for 15th place between Nigeria and Japan! Nigeria were easy winners bowling out Japan for 115 and winning by 8 wickets with plenty of overs to spare. Two names in this game for cricket quizzers of the future with Mba and Aho both playing for Nigeria.
One final note of interest for followers of cricket in the lower reaches. Both Yorkshire and Surrey are the first in the field to announce their second eleven fixtures for 2020 on their respective websites. Some confusion has arisen already as the Second XI Trophy (50 overs - one innings competition) has been removed completely, although Surrey still refer to it in error in place of their T20 fixtures.
Yorkshire seem to have got it right with four day championship fixtures, the T20 competition and four 50 over friendlies later in the season. So yet another change to the cricketing calender which, together with the ubiquitous health and safety legislation, means the loss of several favourite venues not only effecting second eleven cricket but Minor Counties (now the National Counties) as well.
Stamford Bridge, in North Yorkshire, has always attracted large crowds for second eleven games for many seasons now, but apparently has been struck off because of the lack of medical facilities in the pavilion and complaints from the umpires about the wicket last season. No Minor Counties games for Cumberland at Sedbergh, now taken over by Lancashire, or Netherfield. This partly because of the large reduction in championship games.
Todmorden has also always had large attendances for both Lancashire and Yorkshire second eleven games in the past, but had already been dispensed with as the wicket was allegedly not up to standard. Even the six counties under 19 competition, which Lancashire played there, has now been abolished as well, due to the Under 17s now becoming the Under 18s (Try to keep up!). All very puzzling but not a surprise in this modern ECB dominated era.
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