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Australia beat England yesterday in the opening game in Ireland’s group at the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in Townsville, Queensland. This gives Ireland the opportunity to inflict a second defeat on England in two days and put the boys in green within touching distance of the next round.
The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 got underway in Queensland on Saturday with host Australia belying its patchy lead-up form to open with an impressive six-wicket victory over England in front of ESPN STAR Sports’ cameras while Bangladesh caused the first upset of the event by defeating Sri Lanka by 25 runs.
In the other matches on the opening day, Pakistan defeated Afghanistan by 109 runs on the Sunshine Coast while Zimbabwe had the better of Papua New Guinea (PNG) by 145 runs in Townsville.

Group A – Australia beats England

The Australia U19 side had a dream start to its defence of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup with a six-wicket win against arch rival England in Townsville on Saturday.

Australia captain Will Bosisto won the toss and elected to bowl on a bouncy wicket at Tony Ireland Stadium.

A fantastic all-round bowling effort from Australia saw it restrict England to 143. Australia struck early with West Australia’s Joel Paris taking out English danger-man Daniel Bell-Drummond for a duck. Queensland paceman Mark Steketee claimed the valuable wicket of Ben Foakes.

Western Australia’s Ashton Turner claimed the wickets of Ben Duckett (15) and Sam Wood (0) with consecutive deliveries, unfortunately missing his hat-trick with the first ball of his next over.

New South Wales’ quick Gurinder Sandhu was well suited to the bouncy pitch and had a great day with the ball finishing with figures of 9.3-1-27-3.

Australia’s run chase got off to a shaky start with the openers James Peirson and Cameron Bancroft falling in the first two overs to a sharp opening spell by the English opening attack.

Bosisto and hard-hitting left-handed batsman Travis Head combined well for a match winning fourth wicket stand, enabling Australia to cruise to victory with 15 overs to spare. Head, who was awarded man of the match, hit a solid 57 of 58 balls with six boundaries and a six to combine with Bosisto for a partnership of 93.

Bosisto said it was great to start off with a win against a strong side like England.

“I think our bowlers bowled really well early on, they had good line and lengths and we got a few nicks and LBWs and from there it was really about keeping it tight.

“We have played England before and we expected them to put a few more runs on but I knew the wicket was tough for batting out there early on,” he said.

ICC
The Irish Under 19 Squad pictured yesterday
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