Proteas lift U19 World Cup

Aiden Markram: impressive tournament

South Africa won the Under-19 World Cup with a six-wicket victory over Pakistan in the final in Dubai.

Skipper Aiden Markram led his team from the front virtually from the first match to the last, as the ‘Baby Proteas’ won with 47 balls to spare on Saturday.

It was South Africa’s first victory in this tournament in their third final, having lost the showpiece in 2002 under the captaincy of Hashim Amla and 2008 under Wayne Parnell.

After losing the toss, South Africa did a brilliant job in bowling Pakistan out for just 131 in only 44.3 overs thanks to an all-round effort from their quartet of seam bowlers.

Markram then took charge of the run-chase to finish unbeaten on 66 as the Proteas got across the line in 42.1 overs.

123 average

Markram has played successive innings at the tournament of 3, 31, 120 not out, 105 not out, 45 (in the semi-final against Australia) and 66 not out (in the final) for an aggregate of 370 runs at an average of 123.

The key partnership was the one for the third wicket between Markram and Greg Oldfield, of 71 in 21 overs, after the first two wickets had fallen cheaply.

Corbin Bosch, son of Tertius Bosch, who represented the Proteas at their first World Cup in 1992 and also in their first Test match after unity against the West Indies, had the best bowling return of 4-15, while Clyde Fortuin took six catches behind the stumps.

Kagiso Rabada, who made the initial breakthrough, finished with 14 wickets in the tournament to be the joint second leading wicket-taker.

Fortuin had 20 dismissals (19 catches and a stumping) in the tournament which was twice as many as anybody else.