By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : Despite an easy seven-wicket win over Papua New Guinea at the Kinrara Oval here Thursday, South Africa’s fate of progressing to the Super League stage of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup rests on India’s hand.
The Proteas’ colts proved too strong as they bundled out Papua New Guinea for just 125 runs and then knocked off the target in mere 14.2 overs losing three wickets to improve their net run-rate.
Inspite of the convincing win, South Africa would hope that India beats West Indies Friday and pave its way to reach the next stage of the tournament.
A win at the Kinrara Oval Friday will land India at the top of the Group B and the Proteas will emerge as runners-up. However, if the Caribbeans managed to beat India then South Africa will be relegated to the Plate division on run-rate.
South Africa’s Pieter Malan registered a dominant half-century to surpass the target.
Earlier in the day, leg-spinner Jonathan Vandiar took four wickets to clean up the New Guinea line-up after pace duo of Wayne Parnell and Matthew Arnold had done the early damage.
In other matches of the day, Nepal beat Namibia by three runs in Penang and New Zealand defeated hosts Malaysia by eight wickets in Johor, while Bermuda prevailed over Ireland by 20 runs.
Scores in brief:
New Zealand beat Malaysia by eight wickets:
Malaysia 47 all out, 17.1 overs (Trent Boult 7-20, Tim Southee 3-19)
New Zealand 48-2, 11.1.overs (Kane Williamson 27; Sarvana Raj 2-15)
Nepal beat Namibia by three runs:
Nepal 164 all out, 49.5 overs (Mahesh Chhetri 62; Louis van der Westhuizen 2-17)
Namibia 161 all out, 49 overs (Louis van der Westhuizen 65, Sean Silver 41; Gyanendra Malla 2-3, Rahul Vishwakarma 2-23)
South Africa beat Papua New Guinea by seven wickets:
Papua New Guinea 125 all out, 45 overs (Tanti Heni 35, C Amini 31; Jonathan 4-27, Wayne Parnell 3-19, Matthew Arnold 3-27)
South Africa 126 for 3, 14.2 overs (Pieter Malan 56, JJ Smuts 36)
Bermuda beat Ireland by 20 runs:
Bermuda 221-9, 50 overs (Rodney Trott 64, Malachi Jones 58; James Hall 3-44, Richard Keaveney 2-50)
Ireland 201 all out, 48.4 overs (Chris Dougherty 70, Ben Ackland 37; Christopher Douglas 5-40)