U-19 World Cup: Australia beat England by six wickets

Townsville (Australia), Aug 11 (IANS) Australia had an ideal start in their defence of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup here Saturday when they beat arch-rivals England by six wickets.

Australian Captain Will Bosisto won the toss and elected to bowl on a bouncy wicket at Tony Ireland Stadium.

A fantastic all-round bowling effort from the Australian side saw them restrict the tournament front runners England to 143.

Australia struck early with West Australia's Joel Paris taking out danger-man Daniel Bell-Drummond for a duck. Paceman Mark Steketee then claimed the valuable wicket of Ben Foakes (2).

West Australia's Ashton Turner claimed the wickets of Ben Duckett (15) and Sam Wood (0) with consecutive deliveries, unfortunately missing his hat-trick with the first ball of his next over.

Medium pacer Gurinder Sandhu of Indian origin was well suited to the fast wicket and had a great day with the ball finishing with figures of 9.3-1-27-3.

Australia's run chase got off to a shaky start with the openers James Peirson and Cameron Bancroft falling in the first two overs to a sharp opening spell by the English opening attack.

Bosisto and hard-hitting left-handed batsman Travis Head, however, combined well for a match winning fourth wicket stand, enabling Australia to cruise to victory with 15 overs to spare. Head, who was awarded Man of the Match, hit a solid 57 off 58 balls to combine with Bosisto for a partnership of 93.

Australia play Nepal in their second group match Monday.

In the other matches Saturday, Pakistan defeated Afghanistan by 109 runs while Bangladesh scored a 25-run win over Sri Lanka.