England grab consolation victory in final U19s ODI

England Under-19s grabbed a consolation victory over Australia in the final match of the Youth ODI series at Hove, winning by four wickets with 64 balls to spare to set the series ledger at 3-1 the visitors' way.

Another impressive all-round performance from Hampshire’s Dom Kelly, who had also succeeded with bat and ball in the previous match two days earlier, saw his side home.  Kelly, 17, followed his three wickets with an unbeaten 50 from 45 balls, with a six and six fours.

England had got off to a racing start when Theo Wylie crashed four fours off Mahli Beardman’s opening over.  And 17 came from the second, bowled by Cody Reynolds, with captain Ben McKinney striking ten runs from two deliveries. The 50 came up in the fifth over and the 100 in only the ninth.  But in the same over McKinney skied to mid-off for a 47-ball 29.

In the next over England lost two wickets.  First Wylie was bowled, driving with his head up, for 54 scored from 27 deliveries, with 11 fours and a vast six over midwicket off Beardman. And four balls later Luc Benkenstein came down the wicket and skied into the covers for just four.

Hamza Shaikh and Ross Whitehead put on a sensible 49 before the later lost his off stump to Beardman and then Noah Thain was lbw playing a crooked shot against Raf MacMillan. Shaikh and Kelly appeared to have to situation under control until Shaikh hooked to long leg at 209.  But Kelly provided the precocious maturity to see England over the line.

Australia were hoping for a total in excess of 300 when Harry Dixon (54) and Corey Wasley (33) added 81 for the second wicket in 12 overs after Sam Konstas had fallen lbw to the first ball of the match.

The two left-handers struck 14 fours between them as they dominated the England seamers, with Dixon the more belligerent of the two. But when England brought on their spinners, the off-spinner Farhan Ahmed (who had replaced the leg-spinner Tazeem Ali) and the two slow left-armers, Charlie Barnard and Theo Wylie, they managed to put a brake on the scoring rate.

It was fast bowler Eddie Jack who broke the partnership when he had Wasley caught behind.  But then the slow men took over to frustrate the free-scoring Australians. The pick of them was Lancashire’s Barnard. He had bowled only three overs in the previous match, on Saturday, but here he had his full allocation and finished with figures of three for 26, causing hesitancy with both flight and turn.

Dixon looked in prime form as he sprinted to his fifty from 37 deliveries, with eight fours, but then he was beaten in the air and bowled by Barnard. Four overs later Ryan Hicks chipped a return catch to the same bowler. And four overs after that Barnard had his third when he turned one past Lachlan Aitken’s outside edge and knocked back his off stump.

Australia still looked capable of a big total while captain Hugh Weibgen was still at the crease.  But when he was bowled for a fine 86-ball 77, attempting to ramp Jack in the 44th over, his side had to curtail their ambitions.

"We were pretty dominant up until today, when we were quite disappointing," said Australia coach Anthony Clark. "I thought we played some good cricket up until the final game, where we let out standards slip a little bit.

"But for the first few games we were pretty solid and particularly with the bat we were pretty good.  We tried to give players opportunities today – we’d swapped around with every game.  We brought 16 players over here so we wanted to mix and match.

"I thought Sam Konstas has been very good with the bat, overall, and so has our captain, Hugh Weibgen, and I think all of our three spinners have bowled well throughout the series.  We’re now looking forward to seeing how we go in the Test matches."

The first of two youth Tests between the two sides begins in Worcester on Friday.

- Courtesy ECB Reporters Network

Australia U19 tour of England

First Youth ODI: No result

Second Youth ODI: Australia won by seven wickets

Third Youth ODI: Australia won by 38 runs

Fourth Youth ODI: Australia won by four wickets

Fifth Youth ODI: England won by four wickets

First Youth Test: September 8-12, New Road, Worcester

Second Youth Test: September 16-20, County Ground, Northampton

Australia U19 Squad: Hugh Weibgen (c, QLD), Lachlan Aitken (wk, QLD), Harkirat Bajwa (VIC), Mahli Beardman (WA), Harry Dixon (VIC), Cameron Frendo (NSW), Ryan Hicks (NSW), Sam Konstas (NSW), Rafael MacMillan (NSW), Tom Menzies (NT), Cody Reynolds (QLD), Harjas Singh (NSW), Tom Straker (NSW), Josh Vernon (WA), Callum Vidler (QLD), Corey Wasley (WA)