The win was based around a hard hitting innings by captain on the day Paul Stirling and a key partnership between Ben Ackland and Graham McDonnell which took the game away from the UNSW side. Stirling retired on reaching his century and Ackland and McDonnell both fell just short of reaching their half centuries.
An improved bowling performance put the UNSW team under pressure in the early stages of their reply and the Ireland team picked off wickets every 4 to 5 overs to complete a comfortable win ahead of their transfer to New Zealand.
Cricket Operations Director Mark Garaway commented “The camp has proved to be a huge success with the Ireland side conducting themselves well and earning the respect of all the people that came into contact with the team.”
He also expressed his appreciation of Australian bowling coach Geoff Lawson. “Geoff has been working hard with the bowlers over the past 2 days. His love and enthusiasm for cricket shone through and his coaching style was well received by the boys and management staff. Many thanks to Geoff for all his support and efforts over the past seven days.”
Scorecard
Ireland U19 341-5 (Paul Stirling 100 retired, Ben Ackland 49, Graham McDonnell 47, Stuart Thompson 37)
UNSW - 169 all out (Graeme McCarter 2-39, Stuart Thompson 3-25, Eddie Richardson 3-31)
Ireland won by 172 runs.
The Ireland squad now move on to New Zealand on Saturday and have two warm up games v Afghanistan and West Indies on Monday and Wednesday before the opening ceremony of the U19 World Cup in Christchurch on Friday.
