Australia and West Indies off to winning starts

Australia and West Indies got their Under-19 World Cup campaigns off to winning starts on day two of the first round of warm-up matches.

Australia had an easy day at the Royal Military College, bowling Zimbabwe out for 57 and then needing just 7.2 overs to knock off the required runs with ten wickets in hand. Steven Smith took 5 for 21 and David King chipped in with 2 for 6 to flabbergast Zimbabwe and in reply Phillip Hughes hit an unbeaten 40 from 31 deliveries.

Darren Bravo offered a glimpse of the similarity between himself and brother Dwayne, the WI senior side allrounder, by starring in a four-wicket win for West Indies over Sri Lanka. Though he nipped out two tail-end wickets after his team-mates did most of the damage in restricting Sri Lanka to 174 all out after 47.5 overs, it was Bravo's unbeaten 43 from 54 balls that clinched the win. West Indies were 95 for 5 when he walked in to bat, after left-arm medium-pacer Chathura Peiris nailed two early blows, but his composed innings proved match-winning.

At Kilat Club, Nepal beat debutants Bermuda by 188 runs. Nepal won the toss and stacked up an impressive 256 for 8 in 50 overs thanks to captain Paresh Khadka's 63 and 37 from Gyanendra Malla. Malachi Jones, who played for the senior team during the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies last year, took three wickets. Bermuda's batting, however, could not make the grade and they were all out for 38 in inside 25 overs. Raj Shrestha and Amrit Bhattarai took three wickets each and Khadka chipped in with 2 for 12.

Namibia were no match for South Africa, who chased down a modest total of 106 with seven wickets intact , though openers Pieter Malan (34) and JJ Smuts (50) retired themselves.