The South African U19 team are fully prepared and ready to get their U19 Cricket World Cup campaign underway when they take on Afghanistan in their tournament opener at the High Performance Oval in Windhoek on Friday.
The tournament is taking place in Namibia and Zimbabwe over the next 21 days, and will culminate with the final in Harare on 6 February.
The SA U19s will be eager to get off to the best possible start, and captain Muhammad Bulbulia believes that his team have prepared well for the challenge that will be posed by Afghanistan.
Want a win
“We really want a win out of the first game and take those points with us. They look like a strong team from seeing some of the games they have played and the analysis we have done on them,” said Bulbulia.
“I feel like we need to expect a lot of spin from them, and that will be their key method of trying to tie us down, and we have prepared well for that.”
Along with the SA U19s and Afghanistan U19s, West Indies U19s and Tanzania U19s make up the other two teams in the pool, and the top three teams at the end of the pool phase will qualify for the Super Six stage of the competition.
“Our goals for the pool stage is to try and win every game and top the group. I think we are in a pretty strong pool, Afghanistan and West Indies are two very strong sides,” said Bulbulia.
“Tanzania are also debuting in the competition so you are never really sure what they will bring, and that makes it a bit tougher (to prepare for).”
Tough build up
It has not been the best buildup results-wise for the SA U19s, having lost four of five matches, but the game time has been invaluable for them.
They hosted India U19s, who are considered one of the World Cup favourites, in a three match series and lost all three games, although they were well in the hunt in one of them when rain came down and saw the Indians clinch a tight DLS win.
They then went down to Sri Lanka in their first World Cup warmup, and were in danger of losing their second to Australia, when rain saved them on this occasion leading to a no result.
“The team are feeling really confident ahead of the first game. Obviously a few results haven’t gone our way but I feel we got a lot of what we needed out of these games in the build up to the World Cup,” explained Bulbulia.
“The three games against India, and our two warmup games, were important. It was good to play against subcontinent and non-subcontinent teams. So we have taken a lot out of these five games and I think we are really prepared for the World Cup.”
Super Six
If the SA U19s progress as expected to the Super Six phase, Bulbulia said they would only plan their way forward after the pool stage completes.
“We have no specific plans for the Super Six stage yet, we are just taking things one game at a time and that’s how we are approaching it. We are first going to make sure we look after all three pool games, try and top that table, and after that we will take it from there,” said Bulbulia.
The previous U19 World Cup, that was hosted in South Africa in 2024, saw the SA U19s impress as they almost made it to the final, and were eventually edged by runners-up India U19s in a thrilling semifinal, and Bulbulia believes the team can take some heart from that.
“We do take some motivation from the class of 2024. I thought they did a brilliant job of getting to the semifinal. They played a really good, positive and proud brand of South African cricket,” said Bulbulia.
“We want to now take that forward in our own way, and obviously the goal is to reach the final and win the World Cup.”
SA U19 Pool fixtures
All at the High Performance Oval in Windhoek with 9.30am start
16 January: South Africa v Afghanistan
19 January: South Africa v Tanzania
22 January: South Africa v West Indies
