BENONI                  -              Dan Mousley hit his first ODI century as England dominated Sri Lanka to win the Plate Final at the ICC U-19 World Cup, taking victory by 152 runs.

The Warwickshire batsman opened the innings and brought up his century during a 142-run third-wicket partnership with Jack Haynes and helped England to a formidable 279 for seven.

England lost Sam Young in the first over, with Mousley adding 58 with Jordan Cox before the Kent wicketkeeper was dismissed for 17. Mousley and Haynes ticked along at five-an-over to take the score past 200 before Haynes was caught at mid-off for 68 trying to up the pace in the final 15 overs. With George Hill falling for a duck, Joey Evison joined Mousley at the crease with 12 overs remaining. Mousley couldn’t carry his bat, however, falling in the 44th over, stumped off the bowling of Kavindu Nadeeshan. Evison’s power hitting alongside captain George Balderson propelled England up to 279, with Nottinghamshire’s Evison bringing up his 50 off 38 balls before being bowled by the final ball of the innings for 59.

With the ball, Balderson dismissed the dangerous Navod Paranavithana for a duck with the third ball of the innings before Kamil Mishara and Ravindu Rasantha added a quick 46 for the second wicket.

Left-arm spinner Lewis Goldsworthy made the breakthrough to bowl Mishara and pick up the first of his five wickets in the innings.

The wicket prompted a regular flow of dismissals, with the final nine wickets falling for 81 runs. Rasantha was the lone bright spot in the Sri Lankan innings, with his 66 from 81 balls seeing him move to the top of the World Cup run-scoring charts.

Goldsworthy trapped the right-hander LBW and then quickly snapped up the final two wickets to cap his excellent tournament with the ball.