Indian U19s survived a top-order collapse and rode on masterful knocks from skipper Uday Saharan and Sachin Dhas to reach the final of the showpiece event with a nervy two-wicket win over South Africa.
Meanwhile Oliver Peake, Harry Dixon's fighting knocks and Raf MacMilllan's heroics helped Australia overcome Pakistan in a nail-bitter semifinal clash by the barest of margins to book a place in the ICC Under 19 World Cup 2024 final against defending champions India.
Australia defeated Pakistan by one wicket after Ali Raza wreaked havoc on Aussie batters with his four-wicket haul. An interesting chase brewed up as Pakistan fought back on the back of Raza and Arafat Minhas. However, Australia managed to prevail in the low-scoring 50-over match.
While India will be playing their ninth title match, the Aussies are appearing in their sixth final. The final will be played on 11 February and the match will start at 1.30 pm IST.
India have won a record five titles while Australia have bagged three titles, and the last time the Yellow Brigade lifted the trophy was in 2010 with a win over Pakistan. That edition was held in New Zealand.
India's power-packed performance in the tournament was highlighted by three 200-plus run margin wins.
"The secret to our team's good performance is team bonding. The atmosphere in the dressing room is very friendly. Everyone trusts each other and is ready to help each other. That is why the performance graph has been consistently good," said Saharan, who spent his early days in Sri Ganganagar before shifting to the border town of Fazilka in Punjab.
India: Arshin Kulkarni, Adarsh Singh, Rudra Mayur Patel, Sachin Dhas, Priyanshu Moliya, Musheer Khan, Uday Saharan (captain), Aravelly Avanish Rao, Saumy Kumar Pandey, Murugan Abhishek, Innesh Mahajan, Dhanush Gowda, Aaradhya Shukla, Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari.
Australia: Hugh Weibgen (captain), Lachlan Aitken, Charlie Anderson, Harkirat Bajwa, Mahli Beardman, Tom Campbell, Harry Dixon, Ryan Hicks, Sam Konstas, Rafael MacMillan, Aidan O'Connor, Harjas Singh, Tom Straker, Callum Vidler, Ollie Peake.
The India vs Australia U19 World Cup final will be broadcasted live on Indian televisions via Star Sports network, and will also be live streamed on Hotstar.
Catch all theBusiness News, Sports News,Breaking NewsEvents andLatest News Updates on Live Mint. Download TheMint News App to get Daily Market Updates