By Amindha de Alwis

Kristian Clarke stroked a six off the penultimate ball of the game to seal a three-wicket win for New Zealand Under-19 over Sri Lanka Under-19 in their ICC Under-19 World Cup Group ‘A’ match played at Bloemfontein today (22).

New Zealand appeared to be cruising in their chase of 243 before Sri Lanka came roaring back with four wickets in the 48th and 49th overs to leave New Zealand with 12 runs to get off the final over bowled by Dilshan Madushanka.

However, it was not be for Sri Lanka as New Zealand’s eighth-wicket pair held their nerve to take their side through to the finish.

Earlier, Ahan Wickramasinghe (64) and Sonal Dinusha (46) did well to push Sri Lanka up to 242 for nine after they were being reduced to 141 for six in the 37th over.

The loss put Sri Lanka Under-19 out of contention for the Super League phase of the tournament and Nipun Dananjaya’s side will be left to battle it out in the Plate League.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Under-19 recorded a 39-run win over Zimbabwe Under-19 in their Group ‘C’ encounter.

Zimbabwe made a spirited effort in their chase of 295 but collapsed from 230 for five to end up all out for 255.

In Group ‘D’, Afghanistan Under-19 continued their good form in the tournament as wrist-spinners Shafiqullah Ghafari and Noor Ahmad combined to bundle out the UAE for 105, giving Afghanistan a 160-run win.

Also in Group ‘D’, South Africa Under-19 eased to a comfortable 150-run win over Canada Under-19 on the back of a century by Captain Bryce Parsons.

Canada were never really in the chase despite an unbeaten 63 from wicketkeeper Benjamin Calitz.

Results:

(New Zealand U-19 won by three wickets)

Sri Lanka U-19: 242/8 in 50 overs (Ahan Wickramasinghe 64, Sonal Dinusha 46, Adithya Ashok 3/28)

New Zealand U-19: 243/7 in 49.5 overs (Rhys Mariu 86, Beckham Wheeler-Greenall 80, Dilum Thilakarathna 2/52).

(Pakistan U-19 won by 39 runs)

Pakistan U-19: 294/9 in 50 overs (Muhammad Haris 81, Qasim Akram 54, Dylan Grant 3/46)

Zimbabwe U-19: 255 in 46.3 overs (Milton Shumba 58, Wesley Madhevere 53, Muhammad Afridi 3/55, Tahir Hussain 3/42).

(Afghanistan U-19 won by 160 runs)

Afghanistan U-19: 265/6 in 50 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 87, Rahmanullah 81, Karthik Meiyappan 2/49)

UAE U-19: 105 in 32.2 overs (Shafiqullah Ghafari 5/23, Noor Ahmad 3/30).

(South Africa U-19 won by 150 runs)

South Africa U-19: 349/9 in 50 overs (Bryce Parsons 121, Tyrese Karelse 60 no, Jonathan Bird 54, Akhil Kumar 4/56, Rishiv Joshi 2/59)

Canada U-19: 199 in 41.1 overs (Benjamin Calitz 62 n.o, Tiaan van Vuuren 2/24, Merrick Brett 2/32, Achille Cloete 2/36, Jack Lees 2/39).