Jonathan Bird scored a consecutive century in another losing cause for South Africa U 19 against Pakistan U19.
The sixth Youth ODI between SA U19 and Pakistan U19 got underway in Chatsworth Stadium, Durban. After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Pakistan made a competitive 282 all out in their 50 overs, thanks to another captain’s knock from Rohail Nazir.
SA U19 got off to a good start when Gerald Coetzee picked up the wicket of Haider Ali in the second over, but Nazir and Mohammad Basit Ali brought about calm to the Pakistan innings when they put together a 146-run partnership for the second wicket.
Rohail Nazir’s knock of 74 off 94 deliveries earned him the Man of the Match award, while Ali made a valuable 73 off 96 deliveries.
The pick of the bowlers was Coetzee with figures of 4-26 in his 8 overs, followed by Lifa Ntanzi’s figures of 2-36 in 8 overs.
The SA U19 side had a solid start, thanks to the opening pair of Ruan Terblanche and Levert Manje. The run chase looked steady when the openers made 47 runs in the first powerplay without losing a single wicket, they went on to make a partnership of 60 runs before Aamir Ali broke their partnership by taking the wicket of Manje for 30 runs off 45 deliveries.
In came Bird, he shared a partnership of 62 runs with Terblanche who made 45 runs off 68 deliveries. Bird soldiered on to make 112 off 106 deliveries at a strike rate of 105.66.
With this knock, Bird sits comfortably as the top run scorer of the series with 327 runs in just 5 innings at an average of 65.40, with two hundreds and one half-century to his name.
All those runs from Bird were not enough to get his side over the line, thanks to the Pakistani bowlers who bowled South Africa out for 222 with four overs remaining.
Shiraz Khan, Abbas Afridi, Aamir Ali and Mohammad Aamir all took two wickets each.
Pakistan U19 won by 60 runs.
Ongama Gcwabe is a sports journalist and the owner of 100mph_CSA.Follow him on – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
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