DUBAI // South Africa have a long history in the latter stages of major ICC events but do not have one major title to their name. For such a historically strong cricket nation, it has always been an anomaly.
South Africa’s junior side showed their senior counterparts how it is done yesterday with a comprehensive victory over Pakistan in Dubai to take the title of U19 world champions.
The six-wicket winning margin was reflective of a dominant performance on Saturday, but also due reward for an impeccable campaign in which they were undefeated.
In the final, as in the entire tournament, South Africa relied on pace and seam in a match that, for Pakistan, must have felt a lot like the (senior) 1999 World Cup final against Australia.
That day, after Pakistan chose to bat, Australia hustled them out for just 132 and then hunted down the target easily. On Saturday Sami Aslam also chose to bat first and, even before the halfway mark, saw his side six down.
The batting was not particularly flash, but more credit should be ascribed to South Africa’s four pace bowlers. Kagiso Rabada set the tone early, bowling with real zip and targeting Pakistan’s hitherto successful opening pair of Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq with short-pitched deliveries.
One of the few deliveries he did pitch up did the trick, a wonderful ball angling across Imam, which he could only poke at for a catch behind.
That sparked a collapse of seven for 49, though the prime beneficiaries of Rabada’s opening were Justin Dill and Corbin Bosch.
Neither has the pace of Rabada but both are clearly from the Shaun Pollock school of bowling. They found the perfect line outside off and simply pegged away, occasionally getting a ball to move either way.
Pakistani batsmen, regardless of age, environment or bowler, struggle with that kind of assault and duly obliged. A succession of indeterminate prods, pushes and wafts presented Bosch with four wickets and Dill a couple. Behind the stumps, Clyde Fortuin picked up six, mostly straightforward catches.
As in the semi-final against England, Zafar Gohar and Amad Butt resisted with a punchy 45-run stand. But the innings was too far gone by then for true redemption. When Gohar fell, in pursuit of runs, the end was nigh.
But this would not be a South African side without a wobble of some sort on the road to triumph.
They began their chase nervily, and with excessive caution. When Butt and Karamat Ali dismissed Fortuin and Jason Smith in quick succession, a repeat of Pakistan’s remarkable 2006 final win over India was not out of the question.
But Aiden Markram, South Africa’s captain, is a scarily mature young man, ready-made almost for ascension to the senior ranks. He calmed his side’s nerves and repelled the momentum Karamat and Gohar were creating with their spin.
He was unafraid to take his time over the chase. He never quite mastered Karamat but knew that he did not need to, happily picking off runs from the other bowlers.
In tandem with the equally resolute Greg Oldfield, they led South Africa to the brink with a 78-run stand.
Typically, South Africa stuttered before Markram again steadied them. In the process he reached 50, to go with two centuries already in the tournament. He made sure they crawled along and got there in the end.
It hardly mattered how long they took for ultimately it was about breaking a long-running jinx. Instead, with a second final loss in three tournaments, maybe Pakistan are in one of their own.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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