Cricket: Youngsters back from dead

New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch thought his
team were "dead and buried" before
they staged a stubborn fightback to
beat England by three runs in an ICC
under-19 World Cup match in Christ
church yesterday.

Despite a whirl
wind half-century from opening bats
man Jesse Ryder, and middle-order
resistance led by Brook Hatwell, the
young New Zealanders had fallen
short of Greatbatch's expectations by
reaching only 205.

"We probably
didn't get enough runs, and when
they had 90 balls left and 70-odd to
get, with four down, we were pretty
much dead and buried.

"But our
boys showed a lot of character," a
relieved Greatbatch said.

New Zea
land joined Australia, who beat
South Africa by five wickets, also in Christchurch, at
the top of Super League section two.

There are
sterner assign
ments ahead,
against South
Africa today and
Australia on
Friday, if New
Zealand are to
reach the
semifinals.

England were placed well during a 61-run seventh-
wicket partnership between Mark
Pettini and wicketkeeper Stephen
Pope which should have carried
their side through to victory.

But
neither batsman was able to capital
ise on the situation as New Zealand
captain Ross Taylor rotated four
bowlers, Iain Robertson, part-timer
Ryder, Richard Sherlock and Peter
Borren, during an increasingly tense
last 10 overs.

Pettini was dismissed
by Sherlock with the score at 196,
leaving Pope and Tim Bresnan the
task of scoring 10 runs from the last
eight deliveries.

The equation then
came down to four runs from the last
two balls of Borren's final over.

The
18-year-old Canterbury medium-
pacer promptly bowled Pope and
then beat the flailing bat of Chris Gil
bert to complete an unlikely
win.

"What I liked about it was our
guys fought to the last ball,"
Greatbatch said.

"These games in
the Super League may be round-
robin but they really are sudden-
death matches.

"You need to win to
keep progressing. If you lose you get
put under a lot of pressure," he
said.

- NZPA