England U-19s off to winning start
England's Under-19s got off to a winning start in their opening World Cup Group match
Andrew McGlashan
06-Feb-2006
England 209 for 9 (Ali 54, Nelson 40) beat Nepal 132 (Hamilton-Brown 3-17) by 77 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
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When Nepal reached 41 without loss in pursuit of 210, the possibility of
the first upset in the tournament flickered into view. Kanishka
Chaugai, Nepal's captain and playing in his third U-19 World Cup, had laid into
Mark Nelson and Andrew Miller operating with the new ball. However, playing
a ball through the off side, Chaugai grabbed his leg and it soon became
clear he was suffering a repeat of the cramp that affected him during the
warm-up matches.
Ali, who has already impressed as England's captain in Sri Lanka, pulled
his team together for a mid-over huddle. He later told Cricinfo that it
is something they have been doing for a while: "When things are not going
our way we just want to get everyone together. It's something that works
at the moment so we will continue doing it."
As in the warm-up match against India, Ali was not afraid to throw the
ball to his spinners early in the innings. Graeme White was in action by
the seventh over and, in tandem with fellow left-armer Nick James,
produced an extraordinary example of containment. The first 27 balls from
the pair leaked just one run, and the pressure was telling on the
anxious batsmen. The inevitable then occurred when Sarad Vesawkar smacked
the ball to mid-off, only to watch his partner fail to get within two meters
of making his ground.
Between overs seven and 21, White, James and Ali conceded a miserly 17
runs as Nepal couldn't decide whether to stick or twist and threatened to
fold. Prem Chaudhary finally decided to chance his arm, taking two fours
off Ali before creaming a four and six off White - who had previously gone
for only six runs in 8.4 overs.
Run outs, though, were always on the cards as skittish batsmen
continued to flirt with danger. They lived on the edge while there were
two of them out there - the introduction of a runner when Chaugai returned
to the middle was always going to be a recipe for calamity. So it proved, and Nepal's
last real chance of pressuring England's total vanished when Chaudhary was
removed by a smart piece of fielding from James.
England's fine display in the field was capped by a stunning catch from
White, who ran backwards from midwicket, flung out his right hand while diving athletically and grabbed the ball inches off the turf. The whole team were ecstatic,
but Ali was quick to admit it was a far from ideal performance.
"We didn't play anywhere near our best cricket," he said. "We were lucky
to get 209 in the end, then we had a bad start with the bowling but
fortunately we finished strongly. But after hearing that the Aussies
got 300 plus yesterday we wanted something similar but couldn't manage it
so that is something to work on for the next game."
Ali added that he had "really struggled" during his 54, but without it
England would really have been in a pickle. From the comfort of 87 for 1
the innings stalled dramatically as Nepal's spinners probed away. England weren't exempt from running issues either. They managed three, including
Rory Hamilton-Brown's passable impression of Mike Atherton at Lord's in
1993, scrambling on his hands and knees to fall well short of his crease.
In the end, England stood up and dusted themselves off from their batting
disappointments, ensuring their World Cup run was off to a winning start.
Nepal, though, have shown that they are not simply here to make up the numbers.
They have plenty of heart and skill; the other teams in this group could well be in for a surprise.
Andrew McGlashan is editorial assistant of Cricinfo