South Africa U19 missed out on a home World Cup final when they lost to India U19 by two wickets in Benoni on Tuesday.
Defending a total of 244/7, South Africa got the perfect start with a first-ball wicket from star boy Kwena Maphaka.
Tristan Luus then continued to pile on the pressure. He struck in the 4th over, 10th over and 12th over to set India back 32-4.
India recovered well however through their captain Uday Saharan (81 off 124 balls) and Sachin Dhas (96 off 95 balls), the former taking his team to 244-8 before losing his wicket.
They got comfortably over the line in the end with two wickets to spare.
Kwena Maphaka took another three wickets in the match to take his overall tally to 21.
With the bat, South Africa battled to get a defendable score. Two players held their own against the pressure from India. Lhuan-dre Pretorius (76 off 102 balls) took SA to 118-3 in 30.2 overs.
Richard Seletswane battled hard helping to see off India’s dangerous spinning attack. He scored 64 off 100 balls and took SA to 214 before losing his wicket. It was important to get past the 200-run mark, because a total of over 200 was only chased once, and that was by South Africa against Scotland.
Tristan Luus at the back end played a crucial role in scoring 23 off 12 balls to take SA U19 to 244-7.
