England defeated by West Indies at ICC U19 World Cup

​SCORECARD​

England suffered a 71-run defeat to the West Indies in their first match of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup with Nyeem Young the star of the show in Kimberley, South Africa.

Having been put into bat, West Indies started well with captain Kimani Melius and wicketkeeper Leonardo Julien adding 47 for the first wicket.

Melius rode his luck with several airborne shots, one which was dropped by England skipper George Balderson. The introduction of spinner Hamidullah Qadri saw Melius’s luck run out, caught sharply by Jack Haynes at short cover.

Julien stylishly moved to 40, looking fluent with Kevlon Anderson before strangling a legside ball from Joey Evison to wicketkeeper Jordan Cox.

While England’s seamers all went for over six runs an over, spinners Qadri and Lewis Goldsworthy clamped down on the West Indies’ run rate. Somerset’s Goldsworthy took two excellent wickets with his left-arm spin, conceding just 28 runs, with Kent’s Qadri also picking up two wickets.

The power-hitting of the West Indies’ middle order made the difference, though, with Young smashing 66 from 41, adding 109 with Anderson in just 13 overs to swing the game in his team’s favour

Anderson also showed his ability to clear the boundary, finishing unbeaten on 86 as West Indies set England 268 to win.

England’s openers set a good platform, reaching 53 before Cox – blighted by cramp – reverse-swept the impressive Ashmead Nedd to slip.

Nedd and his fellow spinner Matthew Patrick had similar luck in stifling run-scoring as England’s slow bowlers. Patrick bowled in tandem with Nedd to tie England down when they needed to up the run-rate.

Ben Charlesworth (36), Jack Haynes (27) and Dan Mousley (4) all fell to high catches as they tried to move things on, while Tom Clark looked good for his 38 before missing a sweep to Nedd and departing LBW.

Young took five for 45 with his seamers as England lost seven wickets for 54 runs before rain brought play to an early conclusion to proceedings.

Balderson said: “It’s disappointing to lose, especially having got ourselves in good positions with both bat and ball.

“Our spinners were excellent, with both Hami and Lewis helping us restrict the West Indian batsman. Unfortunately we couldn’t score the runs off their seamers like they did off ours, which led us into some tricky spots with the bat.

“We’re now looking ahead to our match with Australia later this week, where we’ll look to put some of our learnings from this match into practice to give us the best possible chance of success.”

England face Australia on Thursday, knowing a victory is needed to have a chance of progressing to the knockout stages of the competition.