Zimbabwe ease past Scotland in U19 World Cup Plate quarter-final
Zimbabwe Under-19s – 248 all out in 49.5 overs (Matthew Welch 78, Brian Bennett 54, David Bennett 35; Jack Jarvis 3/46, Charlie Peet 2/36, Ruaridh McIntyre 1/13)
Scotland Under-19s – 140 all out in 39 overs (Tomas Mackintosh 25, Jack Jarvis 24, Charlie Tear 16; David Bennett 3/25, Connor Mitchell 3/29, Brian Bennett 1/12)
Zimbabwe Under-19s won by 108 runs
The Zimbabwe Under-19 team enjoyed a comfortable victory over Scotland Under-19s by 108 runs in their Plate quarter-final match at the ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup on Wednesday, with opening batter Matthew Welch setting them on their way with an excellent innings of 78.
They had the privilege of playing this game at the Queen’s Park Oval, the famous West Indies Test match ground at Port of Spain, Trinidad.
The Zimbabweans won the toss and decided to bat.
They lost Emmanuel Bawa early on for three, but fortunately Welch was in fine form again, and the score was 43 before he lost his next partner, Panashe Taruvinga, also for three.
Then came the main and ultimately the decisive feature of the match, a third-wicket partnership of 112 between Welch and Brian Bennett, who took the Zimbabweans to 155 before the third wicket fell in the 31st over, Bennett then being out for a brilliant 54 off 58 deliveries, with one six and five fours.
His brother David Bennett came in next and also batted well to score 35, while Welch was eventually caught for a superb 78, which took him 117 balls and included a six and seven fours.
David Bennett was out in the 44th over with the score at 215, but the later batters, in their effort to score quickly at the death, soon lost their wickets, none of them reaching double figures.
The Zimbabweans were all out for 248 with one ball left unbowled of their 50 overs.
Jack Jarvis was the most successful of the Scottish bowlers, taking three wickets for 46 in his 10 overs.
It was not an easy target for the Scotland Under-19s and they never really looked like chasing it down successfully.
Charlie Tear, opening their innings, played a few good strokes to score 16 off 21 balls before Mcgini Dube had him lbw with the score 18 in the seventh over.
Several times during the innings a useful partnership seemed to be developing, only for the Zimbabwean bowlers to break through and take a wicket before it was able to flourish.
The highest partnership was actually only 28 for the fourth wicket, when Jarvis began to hit out, scoring 24 off 20 balls with a six and three fours.
He was beginning to look dangerous when Connor Mitchell bowled him out to make the score 80 for four in the 22nd over.
Wickets fell steadily until the Scots were dismissed for 140 after 39 overs, giving the Zimbabweans victory, and passage through to the next round.
