A coming-of-age innings from captain Uday Saharan and a blockbuster knock from Sachin Dhas saw India through to the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2024 final at the expense of hosts South Africa on February 6, 2024, Tuesday. (As It Happened | More Cricket News)
Battling at the Willowmoore Park in Benoni, the two teams fought valiantly for nearly a hundred overs but, courtesy of their solid middle-order spell, the Boys in Blue reigned supreme eventually, winning the tie by two wickets.
Bowling first, India limited South Africa to 244 runs in 50 overs, scalping seven wickets in the process. Raj Limbani proved to be India's most productive bowler, claiming three, while Musheer Khan, whose best performances in the competition had come from the other end of the pitch, took two.
For South Africa, both Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Richard Seletswane scored upwards of 50, with the former finishing as his team's highest-scorer on 76 from 102 balls.
Reigning and record champions of the competition, India started poorly, losing four wickets for just 32 runs. However, Saharan and Dhas flipped the momentum in India's favour through their mature batting, with the pairing only broken after South Africa had conceded nearly 200 more runs. Dhas, the first of the two to depart, left the pitch with 96 runs. Saharan followed him out shortly - the job all but done - with a score of 81 from 124 deliveries.
With the two set batters gone, India seemed to struggle to get over the line in the final overs of the match, losing up to eight wickets, but the five-time World Cup winners held firm and saw the win through with seven balls and two men to spare.
India will defend their crown in the final, where they will be aiming to become the first team to retain the title since Pakistan in the early 2000s. They will face the winner of the clash between Australia and Pakistan in the trophy clash.
