West Indies Under-19 cricket coach Floyd Reifer isn’t reading too much into the two warm-up defeats ahead of his team’s inaugural match of the ICC Under-19 World Cup against Australia in Georgetown, Guyana, later on Friday (January 14), saying it’s just a matter of time before the ‘talented bunch’ starts ticking the right boxes. Hosts West Indies lost by big margins to India and South Africa in the build-up and would be hoping to put their indifferent form in the warm-ups behind them when they begin their Group D engagements against Australia at the Providence Stadium.


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In both the warm-up games, Reifer’s side failed to cross the 200-barrier but the coach said he wouldn’t put much emphasis on the losses. “I would say the warm-up games that we have played were two low-scoring games, so I wouldn`t want to put too much emphasis on that. I think the batting comes down to the mindset of the players in terms of spending some more time at the crease and building some more partnerships.


“Yes, we know as a batting unit there are certain things we want to accomplish, guys building on starts and these are things we are discussing. I’m confident in the lads, we have a talented bunch of cricketers, we have some good batters here, it’s just a matter for us now to just do the one percenters right and then we will respond with some consistency,” said Reifer, who was appointed head coach of the Under-19 team exactly a year ago.


Australia also have plenty of questions to answer after a nine-wicket defeat to India in their only warm-up encounter. But with two teams progressing from Group D, which also includes Scotland and Sri Lanka, their captain Cooper Connolly is confident about his side’s chances.


Match Details


West Indies Under 19 vs Australia Under 19, Group D, Match 1


Venue: Providence Stadium, Guyana


Date & Time: January 14th, at 7:30 PM IST


Live Streaming: Star Sports Network and Disney+Hotstar


WI-U19 vs AUS-U19 Dream 11 Team


Wicket-keeper- Tobias Snell


Batters- Cooper Connolly (c), Ackeem Auguste (vc), Giovonte Depeiza, Campbell Kellaway


All-Rounders- Nivethan Radhakrishnan, Matthew Nandu, Johann Layne


Bowlers- McKenny Clarke, Jack Nisbet, Jaden Carmichael


WI-U19 vs AUS-U19 Probable Playing XIs


West Indies: Shaqkere Parris, Matthew Nandu, Teddy Bishop, Ackeem Auguste (c), Giovonte Depeiza, Rivaldo Clarke / Carlon Bowen-Tuckett (wk), Jaden Carmichael, Anderson Mahase, Johann Layne, Isai Thorne, McKenny Clarke


Australia: Teague Wyllie, Corey Miller, Cooper Connolly (c & wk), Campbell Kellaway, Aidan Cahill, Tobias Snell, William Salzmann, Tom Whitney, Joshua Garner, Jack Nisbet, Nivethan Radhakrishnan