U 19 World Cup: Four wickets fell for 32 runs… India reached the final for the ninth time with a historic run chase.
The Indian Under-19 cricket team has reached the World Cup final for a record ninth time. The rising stars secured a thrilling two-wicket win in a breath-taking semi-final against hosts South Africa on Tuesday night. Now five-time champion India will face the winner of the second semi-final between Pakistan and Australia on Thursday. Young Blue Brigade, who reached the semi-finals after winning five consecutive wins in the tournament, had won the toss and decided to bowl. Batting first, South Africa had put 244 runs on the scoreboard. 2014 champion South Africa is the first team to score more than 200 runs against the Indian team in the current tournament. At one time India had lost its four big wickets for just 32 runs. The danger of defeat was looming, from here the impossible was made possible by Sachin Das (96) and captain Uday Saharan (81). The record partnership of 171 runs between the two for the fifth wicket acted as a turning point.
Earlier, for South Africa, wicketkeeper batsman Juan-Dre Pretorius scored 76 runs in 102 balls while Richard Seletswain scored 64 runs in 100 balls, but failed to take his team to a big score. When invited to bat, South Africa lost the wickets of Steve Stock (12) and David Tiger (00) within the first 10 overs. Both of them were dismissed by fast bowler Raj Limbani (three wickets for 60 runs). Pretorius and Seletswen then took over the innings by adding 72 runs for the third wicket. However, both of them played more than 22 overs.
South Africa’s top order was troubled by Indian fast bowlers Limbani and Naman Tiwary (one wicket for 52 runs) due to the pace and bounce provided by the Willowmoor Park pitch. Pretorius and Seletswane also failed to score runs at a fast pace, resulting in a run rate of less than four runs per over for most of the partnership. Left-arm spinners Swami Pandey (1 for 38) and Mushir Khan (2 for 43) along with off-spinner Priyanshu Molia bowled precise lines and lengths to curb the hosts’ run rate.
After scoring his third consecutive half-century, Pretorius hit a six over Molia at midwicket but Murugan Abhishek took a brilliant catch at midwicket off Musheer’s ball. Seletswen completed his half-century in 90 balls with one run off left-arm fast bowler Tiwari. Seletswen also failed to convert his half-century into a big innings and was caught by Moliya at the boundary off Tiwari’s ball. Thanks to the innings of Euan James (24 runs in 19 balls) and Tristan Luus (23 runs in 12 balls), South Africa was successful in adding 81 runs in the last 10 overs.
