By Ross Roche.
Half centuries from the bats of Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Richard Seletswane helped the South African U19 side reach 244/7 batting first in their ICC U19 World Cup semifinal against India at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Tuesday.
Pretorius struck 76 off 102 balls (6×4, 3×6) and Seletswane 64 off 100 (4×4, 2×6) as they gave their bowlers something to defend against the tournament favourites.
At the start of play India won the toss and chose to field, with the South African innings getting off to a rocky start as Steve Stolk (14) chased a wide delivery from Raj Limbani, giving keeper Aravelly Avanish and easy catch behind the stumps.
New man David Teeger fell for a second ball duck as he missed a Limbani ball that swung back in superbly to beat his defences and crash into the stumps leaving SA on 47/2 in the ninth over.
Seletswane joined Pretorius at the crease and they set about rebuilding the innings with a 72-run third wicket stand.
They moved their side confidently to 90/2 after 20 overs, which included Pretorius bringing up a well-deserved half century off 59 balls, but they were then stopped in their tracks by the introduction of the spinners.
Musheer Khan and Priyanshu Molina bowled in tandem for 11 straight overs, in which time only 30 runs were scored and Pretorius fell, pulling Khan to Murugan Abishek at midwicket to take a blinding catch, leaving SA on 120/3.
Oliver Whitehead (22) joined Seletswane, who finally decided to open up after being on 25 off 75 balls, as he slog swept both Khan and Molina for sixes to boost SA over the 150 run mark in the 38th over.
Whitehead skied Khan to be caught, Seletswane brought up his half century, and new man Dewan Marais (3) was caught on the boundary trying to slog sweep Saumy Pandey for six, as SA slipped to 174/5 after an action packed few overs.
Captain Juan James (24) came in to give the innings a bit of impetus as he combined with Seletswane for a quickfire 40-run stand off 25 balls, before both fell in quick succession as they slipped to 220/7.
A nice cameo of 23no off 12 balls from Tristan Luus, which included two well struck sixes got SA to their eventual total, while Limbani, 3/60, and Khan, 2/43, were the pick of the bowlers.
South Africa: Lhuan-dre Pretorius (wk), Steve Stolk, David Teeger, Richard Seletswane, Dewan Marais, Juan James (c), Oliver Whitehead, Riley Norton, Tristan Luus, Nqobani Mokoena, Kwena Maphaka
India: Adarsh Singh, Arshin Kulkarni, Priyanshu Moliya, Uday Saharan (c), Sachin Dhas, Musheer Khan, Aravelly Avanish (wk), Murugan Abhishek, Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari, Saumy Pandey.