In the end it turned out that Canada’s Under-19 team lost to the eventual Champions of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup during Group C matches. South Africa beat Pakistan by six wickets in Saturday’s final at the Dubai Stadium ground to become ICC U19 World Champions for the first time.
Pakistan was bowled out for 131 after 44.3 overs. A stand of 45 for the eighth wicket between Zafar Gohar (22) and Amad Butt (37*) was the most successful of the innings. Corbin Bosch took 4/15 from 7.3 overs and was later named player of the game, while wicketkeeper Clyde Fortuin took six catches, including the first three batsmen in the Pakistan order.
South African opening bat and captain Aiden Markram lead the march to victory with a patient innings of 66 not out from 125 balls. His main partner proved to be Greg Oldfield who garnered 40 runs from 68 balls during a partnership of 71 for the third wicket. South Africa reached a winning 134/4 after 42.1 overs.
Markram hit an aggregate of 370 runs and was named player of the tournament. He scored two centuries, reaching 120* against Zimbabwe and 105* against Afghanistan.
Yaseen Valli, who scored 102* against Canada, ended the tournament with 240 runs after making just 1 run in the final. However, Valli made a useful contribution with the ball against Pakistan with 2/19 from 7 overs. He had taken 4/43 with his offspin against Canada and ended the tournament with 11 wickets. Justin Dill took 2/29 against Pakistan and picked up a total of 12 wickets. Pace bowler Kasigo Rabada lead the South African wicket takers with 14 wickets, including an excellent 6/25 in the semi-final against Australia.
Three Canadian batsmen scored over 150 runs from six innings. Yug Rao made 197 with a highest score of 77. Nikhil Dutta hit 188 with a top score of 62 and captain Nitish Kumar posted 163 runs. Dutta took 8 wickets, Farhan Malik took 5, and there were 4 wickets each from Talha Shaikh and Keenen Tinto.
So South Africa won the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup for the first time, and back on February 16, 2014 South Africa scored 293/6 from 50 overs, and Canada replied with 248/8. South Africa won by 45 runs. Sudeepta Aurka hit 69 before being caught by wicketkeeper Fortuin off Yaseen Valli. An innings that proved to be his best of the tournament. He ended with 105 runs from six innings. Nitish Kumar hit 53, Nikhil Dutta scored 35 and took 3/53 from ten overs.
Canada’s players put in a lot of off-season work that required major commitment from the players and the support staff. It will be interesting to see how things unfold over the next four years in the world of Canadian cricket.
Eddie Norfolk