Skippers shine as South Africa and England romp to comfortable victories

South Africas Dewald Brevis and Englands Tom Prest played captains innings to propel their sides to victory at the ICC Under 19 Mens Cricket World CupHaving elected to make first use of the Queens Park Oval pitch the young Proteas stuttered and lost openers EthanJohn Cunningham 1 and Valintine Kitime 12 in the powerplayThat brought Brevis to the crease with the starlet nicknamed Baby AB hoping to build on his fine 65 in a tournamentopening loss to India He cracked a pair of backfoot boundaries from the second and third balls he faced and pulled medium pacer Yunusu Sowobi dismissively for six in the 13th overBreviss fast start allowed skipper George Van Heerden to play on the undercard and the pair combined for 74 before the latter pulled a full toss to Fahad Mutagana at 113 for three Brevis pressed on scoring heavily behind square on the off side and building a halfcentury partnership with Kaden Solomon that ended when the keeperbatter was stumped at 166 for fourWickets fell around him regularly but with a quick single in the 41st over Brevis brought up a superb century from 108 balls and lifted his side above 200 The innings petered out somewhat and South Africa lost their last five wickets for 24 runs thanks to seamers Juma Miyagi 333 and Pascal Murungi 358Uganda also found the powerplay overs tough going and leftarmer Aphiwe Mnyanda turned the screw early on castling Ronald Omara in the second over Mutagana and Isaac Ategeka steadied the ship and got to 33 for one before the former nicked off to Solomon to give Mnyanda anotherThat would prove the biggest partnership of the innings as Uganda subsided to 110 all out losing their last five wickets for 24 runs Brevis was the undisputed star of the show with bat and ball also chipping in with 218 and bowling Juma Miyai to take the wicket that sealed victory South Africa finish their Group B campaign against Ireland on Friday while Uganda face group leaders India on SaturdayEngland only needed to chase down 98 to win their opening game against Bangladesh but could flex their batting muscles when inserted by Canada at Warner ParkJacob Bethell 7 was bowled in the seventh over bringing together George Thomas and captain Tom Prest who immediately took the game to the Canadian bowling attack Prest was particularly good at picking length and pealed a pair of fours from the final over of the powerplay which England ended at 48 for one He also played an inventive scoop off Gurnek Singh for four behind square and brought up his halfcentury in 58 ballsPrest lost Thomas midway through the innings when he played a tentative push and missed bowled for 52 at 116 for two He was ably supported by James Rew 33 and when the skipper was trapped in front for a runaball 93 the momentum was maintained by William Luxton and George BellThe buccaneering pair struck five sixes between them with Bell responsible for three in an eyecatching 57 from just 35 balls That took England to 3207 from 50 overs England got rid of Canada opener Siddh Lad 5 in the fifth over but were met with firm resistance in the form of a secondwicket stand worth 60Keeperbatter Anook Chima made a measured 38 from 65 balls and Yasir Mahmood 25 joined him at the crease for a productive ten overs Skipper Prest got rid of Mahmood and then four wickets fell for 35 runs as the Canadian run chase flounderedEngland were defied by Gurnek Singh who hit four fours and two sixes and Ethan Gibson who also played a range of attacking shots in a seventhwicket stand worth 74 But Josh Boyden took control with the ball and snaffled three of the last four wickets to fall to tear 444 his second fourwicket hall in as many games Canada were only bowled out in the penultimate over for 214Afghanistan quarterfinals at the last edition of the ICC U19 Mens Cricket World Cup made a steady start but were rocked by shedding three wickets in four overs inside the powerplayMohammad Ishaq 21 was brilliantly caught by Peter Karoho Bilal Sayedi 12 was comprehensively bowled and Allah Noor 2 flicked to a fielder as they sank to 40 for three The innings hinged on the fourthwicket stand between captain Suliman Safi and Ijaz Ahmadzai who took the game away from PNG with a partnership of 105They struck a perfect balance between attack and defence and dealt primarily in boundaries with 44 of Safis 62 runs coming from fours and Ahmadzai striking seven fours and a six They were separated by Katenalaki Singi at 1454 and his superb spell of 418 from five overs helped bowl Afghanistan out for 200 in 382 oversBut PNG appearing at the event for the eighth time never looked likely to chase it down and it was downhill from the moment that Karoho was bowled on the first ball of the inningsThe Afghan attack all excelled and emerged with remarkable figures with Naveed Zadran taking 29 from five overs and Nangeyalia Kharote 25 from three With No8 Aue Oru topscoring with 13 PNG were dismissed for 65 from 205 overs Next up for Afghanistan is rivals Pakistan on Thursday who PNG then face on SaturdayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever