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Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

JUST a day before they meet in a crunch 2024 International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup encounter, the future stars of Zimbabwe and Australia took time off the field to conduct a coaching clinic in Kimberly, South Africa.

The Young Chevrons and Australia conducted the coaching clinic with young children from around the area. The clinic took place at the Kimberly Oval, the venue of their clash.

The initiative is part of the ICC Cricket for Good programme. Cricket for Good was created as the ICC’s global community outreach programme aimed at leveraging the vast power and reach of cricket to positively impact the lives of children and families worldwide.

Following their great initiative, the Young Chevrons and Australia are set to face off today at the same venue for their World Cup Group C encounter. It will, however, be a tricky encounter for the Zimbabwean youngsters who will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways after a bad start to their campaign.

Zimbabwe Under-19s lost their opening match of the World Cup against Sri Lanka by 39 runs (D/L Method) on Sunday while Australia edged Namibia by four wickets and are sitting on top of the group with a superior net-run rate to that of Sri Lanka. The Young Chevrons are in third place separated by net-run rate from Namibia.

Both teams would be hoping for a win which will boost their standing, however, the Young Chevrons will be the hungrier as they cannot afford to lose two out of two as they look to progress to the next stage. Zimbabwe Under-19s’ bowlers were outstanding with ball in hand in the first match, led by Kohl Eksteen, the skipper Matthew Schonken and Newman Nyamhuri.

There will be a bit of pressure on the Young Chevrons’ batting unit to come good despite the wickets in the tournament thus far proving a nightmare for batters. Low scores have been recorded in most of the matches that have been played. Zimbabwe, however, has good batters who will have to come good and navigate the Aussie bowlers. 

Some of the batters who will be crucial in today’s game include Campbell Macmillan, Ronak Patel, Ryan Kamwemba, Panashe Taruvinga and Schonken, who has been handy with the bat in most games.

In their last five meetings, Australia Under-19s enjoy a good record over the Young Chevrons, winning four matches and Zimbabwe will be hoping to re-write history and get one over their opponents for the first time since 2004. Their latest meeting was in 2018 and Zimbabwe Under-19s lost by seven wickets.

A win for Zimbabwe today will go a long way in their quest to better their finish from the previous edition in 2022. After today’s game, the Prosper Utseya-coached Young Chevrons will face Namibia in their last group game on Saturday.

Five time winners of the coveted silverware and defending champions India are placed in Group A with Bangladesh, Ireland and the United States of America as they attempt to claim a record sixth Under-19 title.

Group B consists of South Africa, England, West Indies and Scotland, while Group D is made up of Afghanistan, Pakistan, New Zealand and Nepal.

The top three sides from each group progress to the Super Six phase of the event ahead of the semi-finals and final in Benoni.

Today’s match is scheduled to start at 10am.

ICC Under-19 World Cup matches taking place today

Australia v Zimbabwe (Kimberly), India vs Ireland (Bloemfontein). – @brandon_malvin.