ICC U-19 World Cup: Australia march into semis

Townsville (Australia), Aug 19 (IANS) Australia pulled off a clinical five-wicket victory over Bangladesh Sunday to secure a spot in the semi-finals of the ICC under-19 cricket World Cup.

Bangladesh, put into bat in overcast conditions at Endeavour Park here, could only manage 171 runs.

Captain Will Bosisto (71 not out, 134b, 7x4) was again outstanding for the young Australian side.

He played patiently and maturely, combining with fellow West Australian Ashton Turner for a sixth wicket unbeaten stand of 72 runs to take his side to victory in the 45th over.

Earlier, left-handed Bangladesh opener Soumya Sarkar got the visitors off to a good start forging an opening stand of 64 with Liton Das.

The opening partnership was broken by a superb fielding effort from West Australia's Cameron Bancroft.

Bangladesh's middle order failed to stand up to the task losing three quick wickets in three overs and were finally bundled out in the 42nd over.

In reply, Australia got off to a wobbly start losing the wickets of Bancroft (1), Victoria's Meyrick Buchanan (0) and New South Wales' Kurtis Patterson (0) in the first five overs.

Bosisto and South Australia's Travis Head combined for a crucial fifth wicket stand of 67 to get their team back on track, until Head (44) was caught by Abu Jayed at deep square leg.

Bosisto said he was very pleased to be in the semis.

"I think I played my role in the middle order and got us over the line, but we made it hard for ourselves losing a few early wickets, so that is something we will be working on for our next match.

"We just managed to nudge the runs around and eventually we got on top of them," he said.

Australia will meet South Africa in the first semi-final at Tony Ireland Stadium Tuesday.