Bowes leads SA U19s to eleventh-hour victory
The South African under-19 squad held their nerve and grabbed a last-minute victory when they beat Bangladesh by four wickets in their second and final warm-up match of the ICC U19 World Cup 2012 on Wednesday. They won in dramatic fashion, with skipper Chad Bowes scoring 104 runs and taking his side to victory with just one ball left of the game.
Bangladesh won the toss and batted first at the Kev Hackney Oval in Buderim, posting 213 before they were bowled out. Al-Amin top scored for his side with 60 off 73 balls, hitting five fours and a six to get there. South Africa showed improvement with the ball in terms of extras, bowling 17 to yesterday's 36, but wide balls were still a problem as they bowled 15 of them today.
Solomzi Nqweni was the pick of the day's bowlers, taking two wickets and also being involved in two run outs. He was also the fielder who took the catch to claim the wicket of Soumya Sarkar to break the first-wicket partnership at the start of the 13th over. Vincent Moore and Corné Dry once again put up their hands, taking two wickets a piece.
South Africa didn't have a good start in their batting reply. They lost star batsman, Quinton De Kock to the last ball of the second over for just three runs, putting the team under pressure early on.
Bowes, together with Gihahn Cloete, then contributed a 75-run partnership before the latter was removed for 29 off 55 balls by Noor Hossain. It was hard work for South Africa as the Bangladesh bowlers kept things tight and made runs difficult to come by.
The drama came in the final five overs. South Africa needed 20 off 14 balls with six wickets in hand to win when Shaylen Pillay was run out for 15. Diego Rosier came in and lasted three balls before he was removed for two by Al-Amin. Prenelan Subrayen came to the crease and contributed eight vital runs while rotating the strike to get Bowes to face the last ball and hit the winning runs.
The team have admitted to having some way to go before their first official match of the tournament against Bangladesh on Sunday. Bowes said: “In order to beat Bangladesh we're going to have to bring our A-game to the match on Sunday. They were very competitive today and we could have lost the match very easily.
“They won't be taking any prisoners when we meet again and we know what we need to do to come out on top once again. I feel the team is committed to making Sunday our day and we'll definitely show more ruthless intensity in order to get the desired result.”
