STATE TIMES NEWS
BENONI: Fuelled by splendid fifties by Sachin Dhas and captain Uday Saharan, defending champions India battled past South Africa by two wickets to storm into the final, their fifth consecutive, of the ICC Under-19 World Cup here on Tuesday.
Dhas (96, 95 balls, 11×4, 1×6) and Saharan (81, 124, 6×4), who were India’s guiding forces in the last match against Nepal with a hundred each, garnered 171 runs for the fifth wicket as India hunted down the target of 245 with just 7 balls to spare.
India will face either Australia or Pakistan in the summit clash to be played at this venue on Sunday, searching for their sixth trophy in the marquee event.
But the beginning of India’s chase resembled a debris yard, losing four wickets for just 32 runs in the 12th over.
The South African new-ball bowler Kwena Maphaka jolted India in the first ball of their innings, dismissing Adarsh Singh with a nasty climbing delivery that the batter had no choice other than snicking to wicket-keeper Lhuan-dre Pretorious.
His partner Tristan Luus soon joined the fun with the wickets of Musheer Khan, Arshin Kulkarni and Priyanshu Moliya as all three India batters were indecisive outside the off-stump while hanging their bats to dry.
But the Indians found their saviours in Dhas and Saharan, who dished out innings of vastly contrasting nature and tempo.
Dhas was aggressive despite the situation his team was in, but Saharan was happy to keep his end going.
Dhas’ knock was a treatise on playing cross-batted shots as he cracked a six, pulled fours besides those well-placed nudges through the vacant spots on the on-side.
Saharan, on the other hand, was more traditional but was not entirely hesitant to bring out an exquisite drive or rasping cut whenever an opportunity was there for him to do so.
Dhas reached his fifty in 47 balls, fittingly, with a pull off pacer Riley Norton and Saharan reached his half-century in 88 balls with a cover drive off off-spinner Juan James. In the process, Saharan also became the highest run-getter in this World Cup with 389 runs. But these two youngsters showed immense maturity not to squander the start they got; piling runs to keep the pressure squarely on the hosts.
