Australia victorious in U17 'Test' Sean Beynon - 11 April 2001
The spinners dominated as Australia Under-17's secured a comfortable 90 run victory over their England counterparts in the Youth Test at Adelaide. Chasing an unlikely 265 to win, England never came to terms with the guile of leg-spinner Luke Davis, who picked up five cheap wickets.
After skipper Joe Sayers had edged paceman Grant Sullivan through to Tim Paine, the spinners took sway. Indeed, spin accounted for almost 50 of the 74.4 overs bowled. Although Andrew Gale (36) and Bilal Shafayat (30) threatened to put England in with a chance of saving the game, wickets fell at regular intervals. Gale was stumped from the off-spin of Davis' spinner partner Matthew Burr, and Shafayat was trapped in front by Davis, the first of five leg-before decisions which cut through the middle order. Of the top seven, it was only Gary Scott - leg-before first ball - who failed to make a start. The others looked as though they might have just come to terms with the spinners before falling.
Davis picked up the final wicket, Chris Gilbert edging to slip, to give him his fifth wicket and Australia a deserved victory. Davis finished with 5-25; Burr 3-81. Earlier in the day, Matthew Berriman fell 18 short of his century as the Aussies tried to set up a declaration. Berriman hit a further two boundaries on the final day, his 82 coming from 97 balls. Mark Faraday made 43, allowing Australia to time their declaration perfectly on 179-5 to give them over five hours to bowl England out.