Windies blow Australia away in warm-up

The West Indies established itself as one of the teams to beat in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup with an impressive five-wicket victory over Australia at Club Aman, Kuala Lumpur, in the last round of warm-up matches before the tournament proper gets underway on February 17.

It follows another comfortable win earlier in the week over Sri Lanka and things look to be coming together nicely for the men from the Caribbean.

Having lost the toss and asked to bowl, it looked like it could be a long day in the field for Shamarh Brooks' men when Marcus Stoinis and Kumar Sarna put on 63 for the first wicket.

But wickets fell in regular succession after that, with only Sarna (32) making it past 30. Once Jason Dawes, Veerasammy Permaul and Steven Jacobs had made the initial breakthroughs, Brooks then came on and cleared up the middle-order and tail. The captain finished with figures of 5-25 in 9.2 overs as Australia were bundled out for 159.

The result never really looked in doubt from that point with Kieron Powell scoring a neat half-century at the top of the West Indies order and Andre Creary (45 not out) making sure the job was done after Powell was dismissed.

At Kilat Cricket Club, Sri Lanka scored a 23-run win over South Africa to give it confidence ahead of its first game on February 18 against Nepal in Penang.

Batting first, Sri Lanka made 224 thanks in chief to a half-century from Dinesh Chandimal and 47 from Lahiru Thirimannne, who has now put his name in the hat for selection after only coming into the squad as a late replacement for the injured Mohamed Mazahir.

Tight bowling from Roy Adams, Pieter Malan and Sybrand Engelbrecht kept the Sri Lanka total down but when it came the South Africans' turn to bat, they could not do any better.

Malan and Jon-Jon Smuts got the junior Proteas off to a solid start but things slowed down in the middle overs, South Africa fell behind the rate and Sri Lanka took wickets at crucial times through the good work of Umesh Karunarathna and Schith Pathirana, both of whom ended with figures of 2-25.

Elsewhere, Zimbabwe had a good three-wicket win over the fancied Nepal team at Royal Military College while Namibia saw off the challenge of Bermuda at Selangor Turf Club by 102 runs.

Scores in brief:

At Kilat Cricket Club, Sri Lanka won by 23 runs

Sri Lanka 224 all out, 48.5 overs (Dinesh Chandimal 50, Lahiru Thirimanne 47; Roy Adams 2-27, Sybrand Engelbrecht 2-43)

South Africa 201 all out, 48.5 overs (Jacobus Pienaar 39, Pieter Malan; Umesh Karunarathna 2-25, Schith Pathirana 2-25)

At Selangor Turf Club, Namibia beat Bermuda by 102 runs

Namibia 224 all out, 41.3 overs (Sean Silver 47, Louis van der Westhuizen 44, Ewald Steenkamp 35; Malachi Jones 4-31)

Bermuda 122 all out, 37.4 overs (Malachi Jones 30; Helao Ya France 2-14, Tiaan Louw 2-16)

At Royal Military College, Zimbabwe won by seven wickets

Nepal 205-8, 50 overs (Gyanendra Malla 85; Prince Masvaure 3-32)

Zimbabwe 206-7, 48.3 overs (Tinashe Chimbambo 49 not out, Hughes Dinembira 37; Paras Khadka 4-34)

At Club Aman, West Indies beat Australia by five wickets

Australia 159 all out, 48.2 overs (Kumar Sarna 32; (Sharmarh Brooks 5-25, Veerasammy Permaul 2-18)

West Indies 160-5, 35.4 overs (Kieron Powell 51, Andre Creary 45 not out; Jeremy Smith 2-30).