Under-19 World Cup wrap: Success for Nepal, struggles elsewhere

Scotland (=13^th)

Results:

Group Stage: vs England, lost by 7 wickets (with 141 balls remaining)

Group Stage: vs West Indies, lost by 5 wickets (with 89 balls remaining)

Group Stage: vs South Africa, lost by 7 wickets (with 138 balls remaining)

Playoff: vs Namibia, won by 3 runs

Analysis

Scotland have been as good as regulars at the Under-19 World Cup, with 10 appearances out of a possible 15. But in that time, they have never achieved better than an 11^th place finish. This story played out for them again in 2024, with one win out of four, against Namibia in the playoffs.

It was, nonetheless, a thrilling win, by three runs and going to the last ball. Ibrahim Faisal successfully defended six off the last ball, and twelve off the over. It was set up by a pair of 76-run innings, first by Jamie Dunk, and then by Bahadar Esakhiel. Esakhiel took 26 off the last over, including four sixes, to give Scotland a defendable total, but not by much.

Their contests against their full member opponents were less successful. England made light work of a chase of 174. Despite making a slow but steady start, Scotland’s lower order failed to add meaningful runs and were swiftly bowled out. The same pattern played out against West Indies, as Scotland made it to 145/2 but could only manage 205/9 after 50 overs. West Indies made easy work of the chase, completing the game with nearly 15 overs to spare. Even against South Africa, where Scotland made 269/9 thanks to nineties from Dunk and Oliver Gould, the runs were not enough. South Africa’s batters slogged Scotland around and completed their chase at over 10 runs per over.

Nevertheless, Dunk and Gould came away with plenty of runs, Dunk’s tally of 263 was the third best in the tournament prior to the knockout stages. However, they were not backed up by much of the middle order, and the bowlers, with only Faisal (6) taking five or more wickets.