With the New Zealand Under-19 side condemned to the meaningless "Plate" competition in the youth World Cup we should have expected a series of easy victories over such cricketing giants as Ireland, Nepal and Uganda. But no. Last night we only just managed to stumble to victory over the Irish after they scored a mammoth 304/9 off their 50 overs. A solid 87 from Andrew de Boorder and 92 off 55 balls from tail-ender Tim Southee saw us through.
While a bad performance against Ireland is the rotten icing on a very poor cake, you could clutch at straws and point out the Irish had earlier gone down to the very strong England side by a meagre 4 runs. Nepal too has a surprisingly strong side and a history of success at this level. Thankfully we won't meet them until the final, if we meet them at all...
Wednesday, 15 February 2006
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U19 level teams vary from higher grade club cricket standard, to good 1st class standard at best. From what I can tell only India and Aus have quality sides, the rest would only do ok in local club cricket.
So countries that at adult level are strictly minnows, can compete at U19 cause so much depends on physical maturity of the best skilled players young enough to qualify.
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