U-19 WC: Zimbabwe make easy passage to semis

WELLINGTON: Zimbabwe rode to a comfortable seven-wicket victory in the plate quarterfinal against Namibia in the ICC Under-19 World Cup on Monday.

Nkosilathi Nungu, Dion Myers and Wesley Madhavere bagged a brace each as Namibia were bowled out for 113 after electing to bat.Zimbabwe’s chase got off to a wobbly start as Namibia struck twice in the first two overs. However, Madhavere’s quickfire 38-ball 47 did severe damage to Namibia’s chances of giving a strong fight. Even after he fell, Alistair Frost and Tinashe Nenhunzi ensured Namibia didn’t pose any threat and helped the side overhaul the total in only 19.3 overs.

Brief Scores: Namibia Under-19 113 in 40.1 overs (Eben van Wyk 24, Gerhard Lottering 19; Wesley Madhavere 2-11, Nkosilathi Nungu 2-11) lost to Zimbabwe Under-19 114/3 in 19.3 overs (Wesley Madhavere 47, Alistair Frost 30*; Gerhard Lottering 1-19) by 7 wickets.

Canada Under 19 vs Papua New Guinea (PNG): Akash Gill’s 115-ball 120 helped Canada register a comfortable 80-run win over Papua New Guinea and make an easy road to the semifinal playoffs. Slow left-armer Aran Pathmanathan, who was having a tough time in the tournament, too struck form and finished with figures of 3 for 23 to add to his handy 23 lower down the order

PNG, electing to field after winning the toss, were left playing the chase for most parts of the game as Gill, with handy contributions from Arslan Khan and Ashtan Deosammy, kept Canada in a dominating position, striking 12 boundaries and two sixes en route their total of 265 for 8. Simon Atai played a lone hand in PNG’s chase as the rest of the batting collapsed easily. He stroked 81 of PNG’s 185 runs as seven batsmen registered single-digit scores. Medium pacer Faisal Jamkhandi continued his good run by picking up three wickets.

Brief Scores: Canada Under-19 265/8 in 50 overs (Akash Gill 120, Arslan Khan 35; James Tau 2-37, Leke Morea 2-69) beat Papua New Guinea Under-19 185 in 44.3 overs

(Simon Atai 81, Ovia Sam 23; Aran Pathmanathan 3-23, Faisal Jamkhandi 3-48) by 80 runs.