The bowlers were the ones to take honours in Round Four’s two-day matches of the Under 19 National Championships in Adelaide.
South Australia was the only Round Four team to declare in their defeat of Tasmania, while every other team was bowled out at least once.
Western Australia held onto their top ladder position with a win over third-placed NSW, while ACT’s bowlers destroyed Northern Territory to record an outright win.
The other two-day match came down to one run, as Victoria narrowly emerged victors over Queensland in a thrilling run-chase.
South Australia (8/218 dec) def Tasmania (125 and 5/189)
The locals continued their impressive form in the tournament with an easy win over Tasmania. The victory sees them sit comfortably in second spot on the ladder and only one point behind leaders WA with one more round to go.
Tasmania was sent in to bat and made 125 with a solid 37 from Lachlan Fraser, but it wasn’t nearly enough to cause any problems for the South Australian batsmen.
Travis Head continued his outstanding tournament, following up his two wickets in the first innings with a century (115 off 112 balls including 14 x 4’s) as South Australia declared at 8/218.
Tasmania went into bat again and fared a little better, reaching 5/189 before the umpires called stumps and the locals secured the win.
ACT (195) def Northern Territory (145 and 47)
In a supreme bowling display, ACT won both outright and 1st innings points against Northern Territory.
The ACT won the toss and sent NT in to bat. Thomas Andrews (61) was the shining light for the NT, but wickets fell continuously around him until they were all out for 145.
In reply, NT’s Luke Robins bowled well for figures of 4/31, but the ACT had enough fire power and, through a solid innings from Beau McClintock (92), reached195 all out.
Sent back in, NT capitulated in their 2nd innings and was all out for 47. Nick Winter did the damage for ACT and finished the match with 3/42 and 4/18.
Victoria (169 and 3/137) def Queensland (168)
In the closest game this tournament, Victoria won first innings points after beating Queensland by one run.
Victoria choose to bat first and made 169 with solid contributions from Jack Harper, Meyrick Buchanan and Joe Cousins, while Queensland bowler Billy Stanlake did the damage with 5/45.
Victoria’s total may have looked high enough given Queensland’s batting woes this tournament, but Queensland made a decent chase of it.
Benjamin McDermott was the best of the batsmen with 45 runs, but again it was the bowlers doing the damage. Ben Ashkenazi finished the innings with 4/56 as Queensland was bowled out one run short.
Victoria made a better fist of it in the 2nd innings, with Mark Phelan finishing 58 not out before stumps were called.
Western Australia (200) def New South Wales (151)
Western Australia continued to firm as tournament favourites with a strong victory over NSW.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, opener Steve Eskanazi made a valuable 80 with support from captain Will Bosisto (38).
But it was once again the bowlers on show this round with NSW player Harrison Kelly taking 5/43.
The NSW top order collapsed when they took the field, but their middle order held strong with Jake Doran (38) and bowler Ben Dwarhuis (45) getting some runs on the board.
In the end, WA was simply too strong and their bowlers, led by Ashton Agar with 3 wickets, saw the boys from the West take victory.
First Posted 16 January, 2013 11:07AM AEST
