England slump in Cape Town

Leicestershire's Nathan Buck took two wickets on his debut for England U19

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England Under-19s were left to rue their batsmen not making the most of a start as they crashed to a 50-run defeat in the first one-day international against South Africa.

Chasing 260 to win, every England player barring number 11 Nathan Buck, who did not face a ball, reached double figures but none managed to score higher than Dan Redfern's 33 as the tourists were bowled out for 209 in 44.4 overs.

Needing to score at more than five an over, England were always behind the rate as the South Africa bowlers settled into their rhythm.

England lost their top three - Kent's Sam Northeast and Leicestershire pair James Taylor and Josh Cobb - in reaching 53 as the hosts pressured from the start.

Derbyshire batsman Redfern repaired some of the damage but the loss of Jaik Mickleburgh and captain Liam Dawson, when England still required 153 off little more than 20 overs, was devastating.

When Redfern perished soon after, becoming Stephan Smith's fourth victim, the writing was on the wall.

The tail wagged, led by wicketkeeper Adam Wheater and Hamza Riazuddin, who scored 30 and 26 respectively, but two wickets in consecutive deliveries from the returning Obus Pienaar brought the innings to a swift conclusion.

Dawson had won the toss and elected to bowl first, but South Africa scored at a decent rate throughout their innings.

Leicestershire seamer Buck made an early breakthrough when he induced Mangaliso Mosehle to nick behind to Wheater with 55 runs on the board.

But the home side continued to build with Andrea Agathagelou going past 50 before he was bowled by Durham's Scott Borthwick.

Rilee Rossouw and skipper Jonathan Vandiar passed 30 as South Africa neared 200 but when the pair were dismissed by Dawson and Buck respectively, England might have had ambitions of bowling out their hosts.

Temba Bavuma had other ideas, however, and his run-a-ball 63 propelled his side towards a large total.

England did well not to let the last 10 overs get out of hand with Dawson claiming a wicket and a run-out, while Essex's Mickleburgh, on debut, finished with two wickets.

John Abrahams, the England tour manager, admitted they paid the price for repeated failures with the bat.

"The story of the match lies in the last column of the England innings scorecard: 10 scores between 11 and 33," he said.

"All it needed was for one of the ten to bat for longer and score 60 or 70 to challenge the South African total.

"Earlier in the day, the bowling and fielding showed signs of improvement, coming back well to restrict the hosts to 259.

"Spinners Scott Borthwick and Liam Dawson were two of the successful bowlers, alongside seam bowlers Jaik Mickleburgh and Nathan Buck."