The young guns of the Indian cricket team produced an amazing batting performance to beat South Africa by 2 wickets at Sahara Park Willowmoore Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. With a fantastic win in a thrilling encounter, defending champions India has sealed a spot in the U19 World Cup summit clash and will face either Australia or Pakistan in the final on February 11, Sunday. Men in Blue dealt with few early blows while chasing 245, however, India’s skipper Uday Saharan and Sachin Dhas played blistering knocks of 81 and 96 respectively to win the semifinal for India.

After deciding to bowl first, India had a good start with Raj Limbani picking up two early wickets. The right-arm pacer first dismissed Steve Stolk for 14 and then cleaned up David Teeger for a duck. However, Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Richard Seletswane steadied the Proteas ship with a fine 72-run partnership.

After a long search, India finally got the breakthrough in the 31st over when Murugan Perumal Abhishek took a stunning catch at mid-wicket to dismiss Pretorius, who produced a brilliant effort to score 76. Oliver Whitehead chipped in with 22 while Seletswane departed for 64 when South Africa needed him the most. A superb cameo of 12-ball 23* from Tristan Luus helped South Africa to reach a competitive total of 244/7 in 50 overs.

Kwena Maphaka provided the Proteus an excellent start by dismissing Adarsh Singh for a golden duck. Luus then ran through the Indian top order to put extreme pressure on the middle-order batters. The right-arm pacer picked up three wickets in no time. However, Saharan and Dhas played anchoring innings to get India out of trouble. Both stitched an excellent 171-run partnership, guiding India to a remarkable win.