Indian U19 captain Uday Saharan has said that the tight semi-final contest against South Africa will help them to do well when they face Australia in the U-19 World Cup 2024 final at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Sunday, February 11. However, India registered a close two-wicket win over South Africa in the first semi-final, while Australia beat Pakistan by one wicket in the second semi-final to register their place in the final as well.

Speaking to ICC, Saharan said, “We were quite prepared for a close match. It was good that we had a close match. Now our middle and lower order have also faced the pressure of performing in tough situations. These are the lessons we’ll take forward. We’ve seen the wickets. We’ve played there before, and we know quite a bit about it. We’re ready to face all the challenges. We are very excited for the finals. Everyone’s fit and well-prepared, and a good mindset.”

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However, Uday Saharan is the leading run-getter at the U-19 World Cup 2024. In six innings, he has smashed 389 runs which came at an average of 64.83. Meanwhile, India and Australia will meet in a major ICC tournament final for the third time in less than a year as well. Australia beat India in senior men’s cricket in the ICC World Test Championship Final 2023 as well as in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 so far. Saharan, however, isn’t focusing too much on those defeats as well.

“No, we are taking this as any other game. It’s a final, if there was any other side in front of us, we would’ve played in the same fashion,” Uday Saharan concluded. “We were watching the game from the sidelines. We wanted to see how the game was panning out, and how competitive it was. We wanted to gauge the kind of challenges that we’d come across. We watched the ending as well in the hotel, it was a nice game with a close finish. But we’ve our plans, and we’ll execute them [in the final].”