Australia U19 vs South Africa U19, 1st Match, Super Six Group 1(A,D), ICC Under 19 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

Australia is now almost through to the semi-finals after this important victory. We hope you enjoyed our coverage of the match. Please head over to the other tab to follow the West Indies vs Ireland Under-19 game happening now! Goodbye!

Oliver Peake | Australia Captain - It was a little bit different to our first few games, but I was really impressed with the way Alex Lee Young and Drapes were able to finish it off at the end there. It was pretty testing conditions and they did really well to finish it off clinically. It's really strong, obviously. They started amazing again today. Anytime you get three or four wickets in the power play, you sort of start the game on the front foot. Yeah, I thought, again, the lines and lengths just continued to improve against a good opposition. It was good to get into their middle order early and then it was really impressive for Aryan Sharma and Schiller and Kasey to follow suit after that as well. I think today the wicket was a bit more tricky, but I'm happy to be going to a new place and come up against new challenges. I think there's no better time for us to come up against good opposition, obviously rolling with momentum. So yeah, looking forward to what the next couple of weeks presents.

Muhammad Bulbuliya | South Africa Captain - Extremely proud. I thought that was a brilliant effort in the second half of the game. You know, after a tough start in the morning, the boys showed really good fight at the back end and really good energies in that fielding. I thought around 250 to 260, we were really in the game with the way we went in the afternoon. I think we were not able to really build partnerships and that was probably key for us. We just lost wickets in clusters and it was not easy from there. Extremely important. South Africa, we play with a lot of pride and a lot of dignity. So I think against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo is going to be really important for us to take those two points.

Charlie Lachmund | Player of the Match - Just similar to the last game, the wicket was pretty good. Just bowl the right areas, put them under pressure and get some wickets. It's pretty good, fearsome foursome, gelling nicely, had some things to work in the first two games, but nice to put up a complete performance as a group.

15:16 Local Time, 13:16 GMT, 18:46 IST: Australia secure a six-wicket victory over South Africa to finish a clinical performance, though the chase was far from a walk in the park. Chasing a small target of 119, the Australian batters were made to work for every run as the South African bowlers refused to give up, pushing the game as deep as possible by bowling tight lines and keeping the scoring rate low. The Proteas created several moments of pressure with disciplined bowling but they simply did not have enough runs on the board to defend. In the end, the pressure was broken. Sealing the win for Australia and ending a hard-fought contest where South Africa’s bowlers showed great heart despite the loss.

Fielders come in to save the run and drag the game as longer as possible.