South Africa U19 vs Sri Lanka U19, 8th Match, Super Six Group 1 (A,D), ICC Under 19 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

Sri Lanka U19 won by 5 wkts

RSAU19

261/7(50)

SLU19

265/5(46)

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

Sri Lanka move to the second spot with this win. For them to qualify, Ireland will have to beat Afghanistan tomorrow. For South Africa, meanwhile, it's been a disappointing campaign as they could register just one win. That's it for today. We'll be back tomorrow for Afghanistan vs Ireland and England vs New Zealand. Until then, goodbye..

Vimath Dinsara: We bowled really well. Akash bowled really well and got four crucial wickets. Viran played really well, he got a hundred. Namibia wickets were good for pacers, this wicket was spin-friendly. (Was NRR discussed during the run-chase)? No, we just wanted to finish the game.

Muhammed Bulbulia: We obviously started very well with the bat. We were probably 30-40 runs short, a couple of wickets at the back end didn't help our finish. I thought we were pretty decent with the ball, they batted well in the middle there and the wicket flattened out a bit. To bring it back at the end was nice. (On the conditions) It was obviously a little bit slower, a little bit more turn as well. We batted really well, we just let ourselves down at the back end. (On his team's campaign) I don't think it went the way that we obviously planned for it to go, which is unfortunate, but there's still a lot of positives to take out and I'm sure a lot of the guys going forward will take a lot of learnings from this tournament and hopefully it will open a lot of doors for their careers. (On captaining this side) I really enjoyed it. Like I said, hasn't gone our way but I cherish the opportunity and it's been a real honour.

Viran Chamuditha | Player of the Match: Happy with my innings. I got a big hundred in the first game and then I failed in the next 2-3 innings, I wanted a big innings in this game. The conditions in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are similar. Entire team wants to win the tournament, today we're in a better position in the tournament.

17:17 Local Time, 15:17 GMT, 20:47 IST: Sri Lanka keep their semifinal hopes alive with a successful run-chase. They lost Mahavithana in the sixth over which brought Viran Chamuditha and Senuja Wekunagoda together. The two left-handed batters complemented each other beautifully to stitch a wonderful 143-run stand for the second wicket. While Viran was the aggressor, Wekunagoda played the second fiddle perfectly and the duo kept Sri Lanka ahead of the rate. The latter fell two runs short of his fifty but the former notched up his second hundred of the tournament. Both of them were dismissed by Corne Botha. The South Africans fought hard but they could only delay the inevitable. Earlier in the day, South Africa got off to a solid start with their opener - Jorich Van Schalkwyk - scoring a ton but the spinners applied the brakes in the middle overs with Vigneshwaran Akash picking four wickets. 261 looked like a competitive score but thanks to the Viran-Senuja stand, the Lankans were able to hunt down the target pretty convincingly.

1 0 0 0 1 4 (6 runs)

SLU19 265-5

Chamika Heenatigala

20(33)

Dulnith Sigera

15(18)

Michael Kruiskamp

10-0-59-2

45.6

Michael Kruiskamp to Chamika Heenatigala, FOUR, fuller than a length, Heenatigala swings hard for a drive and inside-halves it straight down the pitch. Mid-on doesn't dive and the ball runs away to the fence. Sri Lanka win by 5 wickets

45.5

Michael Kruiskamp to Dulnith Sigera, 1 run, pushes this length ball to point and hares to the other end

45.4

Michael Kruiskamp to Dulnith Sigera, no run, yorker, Sigera moves leg-side to squeeze it through the covers and misses

45.3

Michael Kruiskamp to Dulnith Sigera, no run, moves leg-side and punches to cover

45.2

Michael Kruiskamp to Dulnith Sigera, no run, short ball, Sigera sways away from the line of the delivery

45.1

Michael Kruiskamp to Chamika Heenatigala, 1 run, Heenatigala shimmies down, takes it on the full and flicks to mid-on's left

1 0 0 0 0 0 (1 runs)

SLU19 259-5

Dulnith Sigera

14(14)

Chamika Heenatigala

15(31)

Enathi Kitshini

7-0-25-0

44.6

Enathi Kitshini to Dulnith Sigera, no run, quicker one one leg, Sigera defends

Heenatigala has a word with Sigera

44.5

Enathi Kitshini to Dulnith Sigera, no run, Sigera goes for the glory shot and fails to make contact. Fullish ball drifting in, Sigera gets down low to slogsweep and wears it on the back thigh. sliding down leg

44.4

Enathi Kitshini to Dulnith Sigera, no run, shimmies down to play across the line, misses and gets hit on the back leg

44.3

Enathi Kitshini to Dulnith Sigera, no run, full delivery, defensively pushed to the left of the bowler

44.2

Enathi Kitshini to Dulnith Sigera, no run, fired in on the pads, nudged into the leg-side

44.1

Enathi Kitshini to Chamika Heenatigala, 1 run, full ball, swept to backward square leg and the fielder makes a sharp stop to his left. He's quick to release the ball but South Africa needed a direct-hit there. By the time the keeper broke the stumps, Sigera was in

Umpire review.

0 0 1 0 Wd 6 2 (10 runs)

SLU19 258-5

Dulnith Sigera

14(9)

Chamika Heenatigala

14(30)

Michael Kruiskamp

9-0-53-2

43.6

Michael Kruiskamp to Dulnith Sigera, 2 runs, full again, Sigera slices the loft on this occasion. Mid-off runs back and keeps the batters down to two