Match Report: Ireland Under-19s vs South Africa U-19s

Ireland opened their ICC Under-19s World Cup 2010 with a loss last night (morning local time in New Zealand). The underdogs from the outset, Ireland suffered an early batting collapse and lost to South Africa by five wickets.

South Africa won the toss and elected to field. Opening batsmen Stuart Thompson and captain Andrew Balbirnie did not have the best of nights. Thompson was bowled after 6 runs from 15 balls, but even worse was Balbirnie's single after 24 balls. Rabian Engelbrecht was the bowler for both wickets, with Stephen Smith catching Balbirnie's attempted hook.

Senior international Paul Stirling slowed things down and vastly improved the situation for Ireland with an excellent 19 from 29 balls. In form James Shannon sadly only hit 1 off 17, and Ireland were severely under pressure.

However, the partnership of Ben Ackland and Lee Nelson brought the score up to 153 before Nelson was caught for 55. Ackland was the star of the innings with a masterful 66 in 107 balls. Nelson scored four fours and a six to end with a fantastic strike rate of 73.33.

The following two batsmen, Graham McDonnell and Stuart Poynter stayed in for the remaining five overs, and scored 24 not out and 25 not out respectively. This set South Africa a target of 217 in 50 overs.

However, it only took South Africa 43.4 of those alloted overs to meet the target and win by 5 wickets. Stephen Smith was their star man with an unbeaten 67. Dominic Hendricks hit 47 and Malcolm Nofal scored 32 as South Africa powered to victory.

On the bowling side, our own Thompson and Stirling both took two wickets. Thompson scoring 2-29 and Stirling 2-42. Balbirnie took the only other wicket off his 45 runs in 9 overs.

Ireland have a -0.718 runrate after one game, which is something we can definitely overcome. Our next game is against Australia on Sunday, with USA our opponents in the final match.