India U19 vs South Africa U19: Defending Champions India will take on host South Africa in the U19 World Cup 2024 semifinal. Both sides are coming off mammoth wins in their last matches. Uday Saharan led India U19 fresh off beating neighbors Nepal by 132 runs, while Juan James guided the Proteas to a 119-run win over Sri Lanka.
India U19 vs South Africa U19: Form coming into the semifinal
The India U19 side is undefeated in the tournament so far. They have come through the Group Stage and the Super Six unscathed. The Men in Blue have won all of their matches while batting first. Such has been their dominance that their closest win is by a margin of 84 runs. Three of their five wins have been by more than a 200-run margin.
The hosts have lost one of their five matches. However, since losing their second match to England in the Group Stage, they have been on a 3-match win streak. The Proteas first two matches were close, beating the West Indies by 31 runs and losing to England by 36 runs. Since then, they have registered big wins over Scotland (7 wickets), Zimbabwe (9 wickets), and Sri Lanka (119 runs).
Strengths and weaknesses
While it may sound weird, one of the biggest weaknesses for India is batting second. Of the five matches the India U19 team has played, they have lost the toss in their first four matches and were put into bat. The only time they won the toss (last match), they decided to bat. The Proteas will look to force the Uday Saharan side to do something they haven’t done so far, bat second.
South Africa U19 have struggled with their batting a little bit. None of their batters have scored a hundred so far, unlike India, who have three centurions in their squad. The inability to score big could result in them failing to either put up a big score by batting first or chase a high target.
India U19 vs South Africa U19: Squads
IND U19: Arshin Kulkarni, Adarsh Singh, Rudra Mayur Patel, Sachin Dhas, Priyanshu Moliya, Musheer Khan, Uday Saharan (c), Aravelly Avanish Rao, Saumy Kumar Pandey, Murugan Abhishek, Innesh Mahajan, Dhanush Gowda, Aaradhya Shukla, Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari.
SA U19: David Teeger, Juan James (c), Martin Khumalo, Tristan Luus, Kwena Maphaka, Dewan Marias, Riley Norton, Nqobani Mokoena, Romashan Pillay, Sipho Potsane, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Richard Seletswane, Oliver Whitehead, Steve Stolk, Ntando Zuma.
