South Africa Under-19 boys made history for the Rainbow Nation, becoming the first team from their country to win an ICC tournament when they beat Pakistan by six wickets in the final of the Cricket World Cup.
At the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday, they first dismissed Pakistan for paltry 131 in 44.3 overs, and then reached the target in the first ball of the 43rd over.
This was the third time South Africa reached the final of an U19 World Cup, and since readmission into global cricket in 1992, neither the seniors nor the juniors have won any ICC trophy.
The victory was set up by their superb bowling line-up, with medium-pacers Corbin Bosch and Justin Dill simply outstanding after Kagiso Rabada’s searing pace had softened up the early batsmen.
Rabada, who took 6-25 in the semi-final match against Australia, did the initial damage by removing danger man Imam-ul Haq, Pakistan’s most successful batsman in the tournament.
In company of captain Sami Aslam, Imam seemed to have negotiated the opening spell, when he edged a peach of a delivery from Rabada to wicketkeeper Clyde Fortuin in the ninth over.
Dill (2-29) and Bosch (4-15) replaced the opening bowlers and were just brilliant in their discipline and control. Together, they bowled 14 overs (seven each), with four maidens and picked up the next five batsmen giving away just 26 runs.
Bosch, the son of late South African fast bowler Tertius, who opened the bowling for South Africa in their first Test match against the West Indies on readmission, never wavered once from his line and later returned to clean bowl Zia-ul Haq to end Pakistan’s innings.
Both Dill and Bosch bowled consistently on the off stump with a slight hint of movement, and the first six Pakistan batsmen were all out caught behind the wicket, with Fortuin taking five of them.
The wicketkeeper then claimed another victim, Karamat Ali, but this time of spinner Yaseen Valli.
Even the presence of the legendary fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar in the stadium could not inspire the Pakistan bowlers as Aiden Markram played a captain’s inning of 66 not out (125 balls and six fours) and in the company of Greg Oldfield (40, 68b) took his team to a comfortable win.
Pakistan’s best chances were if their leg-spinner Karamat Ali clicked, and even though he took a wicket of his first over to reduced South Africa to 28-2 in the 12th over, he was handled very well by Markram and Oldfield.
Karamat still had some tricks up his sleeve and finally broke the third-wicket partnership when he had Oldfield (40 in 68b) caught behind by Saifullah Khan of a quicker delivery.
The third-wicket partnership was worth 71 invaluable runs. In the next over, Zia produced a gem as Valli shouldered arms to let one go, and the ball did enough to come back and clip his bails. It was 100-4 at that stage.
But Bradley Dial joined Markram and the two took South Africa past the target.
