Doran puts country before milestone

The left-hander missed out on a century after being left stranded on 99. But the No.4 batsman was pleased to see the Australia Under-19s defeat Bangladesh and enter the quarterfinals of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup at the Shaikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

With partner Thomas Andrews going all guns blazing in the final over of the Australian innings, Doran told his mate to keep going and said that those 21 runs could have been the difference had the match lasted the distance.

Australia racked up 244 for six in 50 overs with 21 coming off the last over bowled by Abu Haider. Australia also hit up 94 runs in the last 10 overs. Bangladesh started well but ended with a whimper. “I just put the team first. I said to him (Andrews) ‘if you can hit sixes, go ahead, mate. I’m not stopping you.’ We ended with 21 off the last over. So, that could have been the difference, in the end. Luckily, it wasn’t needed. But I said to him, go ahead,” Doran said.

With run rates coming into play and Australia needing to win and win big, Doran said the focus was to just go for the win. “Most of the boys were just trying to get a win. Trying to get two wins is pretty important to going through and we knew if we got the second win we would at least be in the top three and if not, top two, which we are, which is good,” he said.

james@khaleejtimes.com