Cape Town - A solid performance with both bat and ball saw the South Africa U-19s secure their first victory in the 2016 ICC U-19 World Cup in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday.
The young Proteas beat Scotland by 10 wickets at the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium Academy Ground.
Bowlers Wiaan Mulder, Dayyaan Galiem, Sean Whitehead and Tony de Zorzi took two wickets each to restrict Scotland to 127 with 4.2 overs to spare after winning the toss and opting to field. Scotland’s Harris Carnegie and Finlay McCreath were the top scorers with 29* and 24 runs respectively.
A strong batting performance by opening pair Kyle Verreynne and Liam Smith saw them make quick work of the chase. They both scored 64 runs from 87 balls, reaching their target in 29 overs to give South Africa a confidence-boosting victory.
Man of the Match, Verreynne was delighted to finally get runs for his team and contribute to its first win.
"Coming into the tournament, I had put in quite a lot of work into my batting so it feels good to finally get some runs under my belt, but more than that, it’s good to contribute positively to the team," he said.
"I’ve batted a lot with Liam (Smith) recently, we’re pretty calm people so it was nice to bat with someone like him, he kept me going and that’s what you want from a batting partner."
Verreynne was also happy with the team’s bowling and fielding efforts.
"Obviously after the loss against Namibia the guys were pretty down, but we trained quite well yesterday, everyone did what they needed to and you could feel the spirits lift by the end of the session," he said.
"We all knew we had to bounce back and do our country proud. I think today we stepped on the field and did quite that."
South Africa will now take part in the Plate Championship portion of the tournament at the same venue. Their first match will be against Ireland on Thursday.
Scores in brief:
Scotland 127 (Galiem 2/16, Mulder 2/16, Whitehead 2/16, De Zorzie 2/20)
SA 129/0
Vereynne (64*, Smith 64*)
SA won by 10 wickets