South Africa U-19s make short work of Scotland

South Africa 337 for 8 (Elgar 86) beat Scotland 152 (Goudie 59) by 185 runs
Scorecard

South Africa took a step towards winning the Plate Championship of the Under-19 World Cup when they made short work of Scotland, beating them by the compelling margin of 185 runs on Tuesday.

Put into bat, South Africa - still smarting under the failure to qualify for the Super League - made mincemeat of the hapless Scotland bowlers to pile up 337 for 8, the highest total of the tournament. Scotland were dismissed for 152 off 40.4 overs.

South Africa's match-winner was the left-hander Jean Symes who deservedly bagged the Man-of-the-Match award; after his knock of 63 off 90 balls, he grabbed 3 for 38 in a superb allround display.

Symes was not alone, however: there were contrasting half-centuries from Pieter Daneel (59) with whom Symes put on an opening partnership of 134; Richard Levi, who blasted 51 and the captain, Dean Elgar, who exhausted himself in his innings of 86.

In reply, Scotland crumbled to a feeble 152, despite 59 from Gordon Goudie at the top of the order. Symes' three wickets were vital blows to Scotland's attempt at chasing down the total, and despite South Africa gifting a whopping 16 wides to the Scots, they fell with nearly 10 overs to spare.

In the latter stages of the innings, Elgar was handicapped by heat and exhaustion and was barely able to make it to the pavilion at the end of the innings. Such was his fatigue that he failed to take the field for Scotland's reply, instead recuperating in the dressing room with the help of a cold towel and three pedestal fans.

Ray Jennings, the South Africa coach, put it down to lack of preparation for the event. "Coming from where we are, we are learning to drink correctly and getting the right substance in our body. It is definitely a learning curve for a lot of the guys," he said. "Many of the players haven't toured the subcontinent. That to me is lack of preparation which South Africa has gone through with regard to coming to the World Cup in the subcontinent. It's one of those things that we've got to drive quickly and learn."

Jennings said that he was happy the way his team played but added: "We had a slow start to the tournament. Unfortunately the preparation was very late this year and that showed. We fine-tuned it along the way and the guys are starting to put it together. Unfortunately it is a little bit late."