FIJI suffered a 299 run loss against England in their debut match at the International Cricket Council U19 World Cup in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

The English won the toss and bat first piling a total of 371 runs in 50 overs with eight wickets to spare.

Fiji seemed to be in contention in the match with Josaia Baleicikobia taking an early wicket in the second over but their joy was short-lived as England’s opening batsman Dan Lawrence secured an impressive 178 runs, helping the team cruise to a strong finish with the help of Jack Burnham who secured 148 runs.

Fiji was all out for 72 runs in 27.3 overs.

Cricket Fiji acting chief executive officer Setoki Galuvakadua said the team had performed poorly and hoped they did better in their next match against Zimbabwe.

“I don’t know what happened, they played very poorly. They had progressed from their friendly matches but I don’t know what went wrong,” he said.

“England is made up of mostly first grade players and the standard of play here is very low and we are trying to change that by getting the right infrastructure and an oval dedicated to cricket.”

He added he was still optimistic of Fiji’s chances of a better performance against Zimbabwe.