Australia stumbles in U-19 warm-up

With the three-time champions poised to commence their title pursuit against Namibia in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Australia will be hoping to find some semblance of their best form in their second and final warm-up fixture against Pakistan tomorrow.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, Australia was dismissed for 195 in the 46^th over after Commonwealth Bank Bushrangers rookie Matt Short feel for a duck in the opening over.

Australia’s innings failed to find momentum on a slow track, with skipper Jaron Morgan top-scoring with 36.

In reply, Victorian quick Ben Ashkenazi (1-34) struck with the new ball and was well supported by Bushrangers rookie Guy Walker (1-31) as Zimbabwe slumped to 4-58.

A half-century to Ryan Burl (60) steading proceedings, with Zimbabwe overhauling the target with nine balls to spare.

“It is a good squad but it is always hard to say before the World Cup where you sit in relation to other teams,” National Talent Manager Greg Chappell said.

“We played a couple of series against Zimbabwe and South Africa leading up to this. It gives you a picture and a little bit of an idea, but my experience with the under-19s team is there are six or seven teams who are capable of winning.

“Playing spin has never been our strength, it probably never has been and never will be. But we will have to back our strengths here and back the group as a whole.”

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