U19 World Cup: 6-star Maphaka, four-up Norton roll Sri Lanka as SA book semi-final spot

South Africa made heavy weather of qualifying for the Under-19 World Cup semi-finals despite the comfortable nature of their 119-run win against Sri Lanka at the JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Friday.

South Africa's 232/8 proved to be more than enough as Kwena Maphaka's six-wicket haul and Riley Norton's four-fer allowed SA to stroll home despite a patchy performance as they rolled Sri Lanka for 113 to qualify for the semi-finals. 

Outside of their indifferent batting display that saw them slip from 61/0 to 133/6, they also fielded especially poorly, grassing five chances that could have and should have ended the game early.

They took enough catches to ensure Sri Lanka didn't get going in their chase after bowling well to limit South Africa to a total they thought they could chase.

However, they didn't countenance for Maphaka (6/21), who took his third five-wicket haul of the tournament to move himself to 18 wickets and top of the tournament wicket-taking standings.

Maphaka prised out Pulindu Perera (0), Supun Waduge (0), and Sineth Jayawardene (6) to reduce Sri Lanka to 13/3 in 4.2 overs.

It was here where the dropping of the catches began as Dinura Kaluphahana (19) was dropped twice on 11 and 19 by Richard Seletswane off Maphaka's bowling and by Nqobani Mokoena in what was a simple return catch offering.

Maphaka then removed Hirun Kapubandara (16) and Kaluphahana within three balls of each other in the 11th over to reduce Sri Lanka to 51/5, in the process claiming his five-fer.

When Vihas Thewmika (5) was trapped in front by Norton to leave Sri Lanka at 78/6, the game was slipping away despite two more dropped catches.

Sharujan Shanmuganathan (29) mounted some sort of fightback but lost his wicket to Norton, who then