England Under-19 lose to Australia Cricket Board XI

England Under-19 lost by 45 runs in its one-day match against the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) Under-19 in Adelaide today. The squad now travels to Christchurch, New Zealand, on Sunday where a further two practice games have been arranged prior to the start of the ICC Under-19 World Cup later this month.

Batting first, the Australians scored 295 for five in their 50 overs. The main contributors were Jarrod Burke, who remained unbeaten on 80, Shaun Marsh (74) and Mark Cosgrove (66). England U19's bowling was led by Paul McMahon (Nottinghamshire) who picked up two wickets for 39 runs in his 10 overs; Kyle Hogg (Lancashire) and Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire) took a wicket each.

England reached 250 for eight wickets in reply. Opening the innings, Middlesex's Nick Compton scored 53 and an undefeated ninth wicket partnership of 85 runs between Nottinghamshire's Samit Patel (63*) and Yorkshire's Alex Roberts (34*) boosted the score to within 45 runs of the ACB U19 total. Aaron Bird, the Australian opening bowler, returned figures of 10-0-36-3.

On arrival in New Zealand, England U19 will play two more practice games, against New Zealand U19 on Tuesday 15 January and against Sri Lanka U19 on Thursday 17 January, before the ICC U19 World Cup begins. In the preliminary group matches, England U19 will play against Nepal U19, Papua New Guinea U19 and Pakistan U19.