Cloete leads SA U19 to win

Arundel - Gihahn Cloete hit an exciting 124 runs off 142 balls to lead South Africa's Under-19 squad to a well deserved 150-run victory over England at Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground on Saturday.

This gives South Africa a 2-1 lead in the seven-match series.

England won the toss and elected to field first on a partly cloudy morning. South Africa had a shaky start when captain Keaton Jennings was caught behind by Sam Kelsall off the bowling of Reece Topley for one run in the second over. Cloete joined Mr Dependable Quinton de Kock and the pair set about turning the match around. They produced a 101-run partnership before De Kock was dismissed for a well batted 66 runs.

Cloete and new partner Shaylin Pillay picked up where the last partnership left off, adding another 103 runs together before Pillay was dismissed by Aneesh Kapil for 42.

The batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking and South Africa finished their 50 overs with 298 runs.

Chasing 299 was always going to be a difficult job, but the South African bowlers made it impossible right from the start of the English innings. Sam Wood was the first wicket to fall in the beginning of the sixth over when he shot the ball straight to Jennings' hands off the bowling of Prenelan Subrayen. Subrayen was yet again a leader with the ball, taking a total of two vital wickets for 25 runs at crucial times.

Corne Dry took the key wicket of Daniel Bell-Drummond (15), just one of the three wickets (3/17) he took on debut. England lost Adam Rossington (10) an over later to Rabian Englebrecht and wickets continued to tumble as every bowler chipped in to take at least one wicket each.

With such a strong attack, England were unable to keep wickets and succumbed to a much better team on the day.

The two sides meet for the fifth ODI in the series at Taunton on Tuesday.