Australia bowlers ensure commanding win

Australia Under-19s 180 for 2 (Bancroft 76, Patterson 52) beat Pakistan Under-19s 179 (Imam-ul-Haq 77, Turner 3-38) by eight wickets
Scorecard

Australia Under-19s came back from mediocre performances in the first two one-dayers to register a commanding eight-wicket win and salvage some pride against Pakistan Under-19s in the final match in Gold Coast. Australia's bowlers ripped through Pakistan's top-order, reducing them to 8 for 3 , and then kept a stranglehold on the innings before Cameron Bancroft and Kurtis Patterson guided the chase with half-centuries.

Pakistan, who had chosen to bowl in the other matches, batted first but fell into a hole early on. Imam-ul-Haq, 77, and Umar Waheed, 52, struck a 128-run partnership for the fourth wicket but the last five wickets fell for 20 runs, three of them to offspinner Ashton Turner. Seamer Mark Stekeete supported Turner well, conceding 14 runs in his 7.5 overs and claiming a wicket.

Cameron Bancroft, with a solid 76, increased his runs tally to 143 for the series and was named player of the series. Kurtis Patterson, who struck 83 in the opening one-dayer, remained unbeaten on 52.

Stuart Law, Australia's coach, said that bowling first helped. "I think today's result is probably indicative of the other two games and we fought back today to gain some respect and put some pride back into our performance. I think winning the toss and bowling first was a major asset for those first two games and we had to come out today and bowl well, and we did."

"The first two losses made us sit up and work out a plan against this kind of attack - most teams are going to have this sort of attack, and our boys went about rectifying their earlier mistakes," he said.

Australia travel to Brisbane on Saturday to play warm-up matches against West Indies U-19s on August 7 and Scotland U-19s on August 8. The Under-19 World Cup starts on August 11.