South Africa U19s fall short at final hurdle as India win by nine wickets

The Junior Proteas, on whose young shoulders was the burden to break an 11-year South African ICC trophy drought, were outplayed by India in the Women's U19 T20 World Cup final in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

The polished Indian outfit won by nine wickets to successfully defend their title.

In truth, the South Africans had already done the country proud by their dominant display during this World Cup campaign, having gone unbeaten up until the final.

It was a ruthless, efficient display from the champions in both departments as they had clearly come into the final with clever plans to ensure the trophy returned home to India.

Then again, the South Africans had hardly been stretched in their campaign of rain-affected matches, and still delivered when asked in the semi-final, their first match that went the distance, against Australia. And so, Dinesha Devnarain's charges were somewhat undercooked coming into the final.

South Africa, who were looking to emulate Aiden Markram's U19 outfit of 2014 in winning an ICC title, elected to bat first and the aggressive Jemma Botha and Simone Lourens strode to the crease with confidence at first.

Indian seamer Joshita opened the bowling in what appeared to be a quick fact-finding mission as they looked to gauge in what kind of mood the dangerous Botha, who was always going to be the big fish, would be from the off.

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She threatened early, with her confident and aggressive stroke play scything through gaps in the field as she took on the seam-bowling with impunity.

After that first over, India immediately