U19 World Cup: South Africa bowlers sink Sri Lanka

South Africa’s bowlers, led by Corné Dry, put in a commanding performance to skittle Sri Lanka out for 150 and set up a comfortable win for their side in their Group D encounter at the Peter Burge Oval in Brisbane. South Africa suffered a few jitters in their chase before they overhauled the target in 33 overs.

South Africa captain Chad Bowes won the toss and elected to field and the decision paid immediate dividends as Dry struck with the first ball of the game to dismiss Sebastian Perera. Sri Lanka struggled to recover from the disastrous start and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. At 98 for 9, they looked in danger of being bowled out for less than 100. However a dogged last-wicket partnership of 52 between No. 9 Pulina Tharanga and No. 11 Amila Aponso helped take the score to 150 before Aponso was dismissed in the 38th over. Tharanga remained unbeaten on 50, the only Sri Lankan batsman to touch 50, in what was a dismal batting effort from them.

South Africa’s chase started shakily as they lost Quinton de Kock and Shaylin Pillay to slip to 21 for 2. However, an 80-run stand for the third wicket between Chad Bowes – who top-scored with 46 – and Theunis de Bruyn (42) steadied the innings. Offspinner Tharindu Kaushal then struck as South Africa lost three quick wickets to stutter to 126 for 5 before Murray Coetzee (19 not out) held his nerve to carry his team home.

South Africa topped their group with three wins out of three to set up a quarter-final match with either Australia or England. Ray Jennings, South Africa coach, said that he was happy with the performance of the team. “The game against Sri Lanka was quite tough from our point of view but the guys have played some really good cricket. We’ve seen some really classy cricket of international standard. Moving into the next round of matches we’re probably looking at England and Australia and it will be a good test to play quality non-sub-continent sides moving forward,” he said.