The Scotland U19 squad took on Australia in their final official warm up fixture today (8 August) before they play New Zealand, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Group B of the ICC U19 World Cup.

Hosts Australia won the toss and elected to bat first in fine conditions on a good batting track at the Bill Abury Oval, Brisbane.

The young Scots started off in positive fashion in the field, with Paddy Sadler and Ruaidhri Smith opening the bowling. It was Smith who claimed the first wicket of the day trapping Meyrick Buchanan in front with the score on 33 in the 7th over. With one eye on Sunday's opening fixture against New Zealand, Smith bowled a single spell with an economical return of 1-11 from his 6 overs, which featured 3 maidens.

Jimmy Peirson was in good touch for the Australians and the young wicket-keeper, after a tentative start, managed to get into his stride to reach a well-deserved century, utilising the short boundary to good effect, before eventually retiring on 128 from 123 balls which included seven 4s and six 6s.

South Australia's Travis Head hit 87 from 42 balls which included an enormous eight sixes and six fours, while vice-captain Kurtis Patterson contributed a handy 39 before being bowled by Aman Bailwal.

Aman Bailwal produced a wonderful spell of bowling to control the aggressive Australian batsman; his 10 overs contained 5 wickets for 52 runs, all of which were bowled to help restrict the hosts to 315 from their 50 overs.

In reply, the Scottish batsmen gave the excellent traveling support plenty to cheer about. Matthew Cross and Ross McLean opened the batting and put on 106 until McLean was caught by Buchannan for 32.

Matthew Cross continued to take the attack to the Australians, striking the ball exceptionally well to reach a magnificent century as he and Nick Farrar continued to pile on the runs. Cross was eventually dismissed for 104 from 70 balls including twelve 4s and three 6s.

Henry Edwards ensured the match as a contest would not end there, striking a run-a-ball 53 to push the Scot's up to 240 in the 41st over; however, he was then bowled by Gurinder Sandhu as the Scottish assault faded.

The New South Wales' paceman Sandhu then took a hat-trick for Australia to finish with figures of 5-51 and leave the Scot's 70 runs short of the Australian total.

After the match coach Craig Wright said, "It was a much improved performance from the guys today- our first 30 overs with the ball were excellent, we got ourselves into a good position to win the match but unfortunately we lost Henry (Edwards) at a crucial time if we were to get over the line.

It's given the guys plenty of confidence going into the tournament and we are all looking forward to the opening match on Sunday!"

The Australian captain was the first to praise the Scottish effort after coming hard at Australia in their run chase.

"We were impressed with how the openers went about their business and we had to bounce back. The match was a good assessment for us as a bowling unit and we defended pretty well.

I think we batted really well today as well, we saw the deck as a pretty flat wicket and batted aggressively from the start and we put on a good total," Pierson said.