Plate Championship second semi-final (for teams that failed to reach the Super League; this decides places 9 - 16 in the tournament):
Nondescripts Cricket Club, Nepal v South Africa. Nepal won the toss and elected to bat.
Nepal 214-8 (50 overs, Chaugai 59); South Africa 212-5 (50 overs, D.Elgar 66 not out). Nepal won by two runs.
Nepal shock South Africa
It has taken a while but in the 38th match of the tournament we have a shock -- Nepal beat mighty South Africa by two runs in a thrilling finish.
The Associate country, coached by former Sri Lanka batsman Roy Dias, held their nerve to earn a place in the final of the Plate Championship on Saturday where they will face New Zealand.
Nepal scored 214-8 with captain Kanishka Chaugai (59) leading the way before restricting South Africa to 212-5, despite Dean Elgar's 66 not out from 65 balls.
South Africa required 16 from the final two overs, 10 from the last six deliveries and three off the last ball but Basanti Regmi and Paras Khadka bowled superbly to earn their side a famous win.
It is the second time in successive ICC U/19 Cricket World Cups that Nepal have beaten the Proteas as they also overcame them by one wicket in Bangladesh in 2004.
Dias said afterwards: "That finish today was really tense but the boys handled it well and I am very proud of them.
"I told them beforehand that South Africa would be under pressure after looking at that last result and with our spinners bowling well it was a great win."
Elgar, the South Africa captain, was gracious in defeat and said: "Our fielding let us down and they got 20 or 30 more runs than they should have but there are no excuses. They were the better side today."
Chaugai's contribution, his second fifty of the tournament, was crucial in ensuring Nepal more than held their own against their more illustrious opponents.
The opener, playing in his third and final ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup, faced 81 balls in a stay of 106 minutes, hitting six fours and a six during his innings.
He added 67 for the first wicket with Mahesh Chhetri (15) and 38 for the second wicket with Sarad Vesawkar (19) and at 105-1 Nepal looked well placed for a score of around 240.
They were also helped by an injury to South Africa fast bowler Craig Alexander, who was only able to bowl 3.1 overs before breaking down with a suspected cartilage.
But Nepal's innings went into hibernation with the appearance of spinners Jean Symes and Richard Das Neves in the attack as both men applied the brakes in remarkable fashion.
Left-armer Symes bowled his ten-over ration at a cost of just 15 runs and also picked up three wickets including Chaugai, while off-spinner Das Neves was barely less economical, delivering his ten overs at a cost of just 25 runs although he went wicketless.
No one went on to play a major innings for Nepal and it was left to Gyanendra Malla, whose 64 in the previous match against Uganda was vital in helping his side to a defendable score, to once again hold the middle order together.
Malla made a responsible, unbeaten 46 in 71 balls with six fours but South Africa's Malusi Siboto ensured Nepal were unable to break free in the latter stages of their innings.
He picked up 4-47 while the other wicket-taker for South Africa was Brett Thompson with 1-38 and their contributions were vital after Alexander left the field.
Having got runs on the board, Nepal gradually squeezed the life out of the South Africa innings through their spinners and from 92-1 the Proteas slipped to 99-4.
Basant Regmi led the way with the ball for Nepal. The left-armer bowled superbly to take 3-31 and even the other bowlers responded well to his lead.
Khadka, who opened the bowling alongside Amrit Bhattarai, was equally impressive and although he did not take any wickets, his 0-36 in a full compliment of ten overs, including the last of the match, was priceless.
"Our batsmen in the middle period played very slowly and by the time I was with Romano (Ramoo) we were wanting eight an over," said Elgar.
"They put us under pressure and although we got 15 from the 48th over we could not get there in the end."
Ramoo made 38 before he was dismissed in the penultimate over by Regmi but those runs took him 64 balls and his inability to score more quickly turned out to be a key difference between winning and losing in the final analysis.
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Super League play-off, second semi-final (for teams that were defeated in the Super League quarter-finals; this decides places 5 - 8 in the tournament):
Sinhalese Sports Club, Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat.
Zimbabwe 256-8 (50 overs, K.Meth 91, G.Balance 53); Sri Lanka 259-2 (47.2 overs, S.de Zoysa retired hurt 63, D.Cooray 53 not out, D.Karunaratne 53, H.Fernando 52 not out). Sri Lanka won by eight wickets.
Sri Lanka show they are not finished
Hosts Sri Lanka showed they are not finished with this ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup just yet.
They beat Zimbabwe by eight wickets with 16 balls in hand in the Super League play-off semi-final at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) to set up a meeting with Bangladesh on Saturday.
And if Sri Lanka win that match they will be able to call themselves the fifth-ranked team in the tournament, which would be some consolation for a failure to get past the Super League quarter-finals in their own country.
Zimbabwe made 256-8, their best score of this competition, thanks to 91 from Keegan Meth, 53 from Gary Balance and a brutal 30 in only 19 deliveries from Ryan Higgins.
But Sri Lanka chased down that apparently testing target with relative ease after an excellent opening stand of 114 between stand-in captain Sameera de Zoysa (63) and Dimuth Karunaratne (53).
De Zoysa, leading the side in the absence of Angelo Mathews, who was ruled out of the rest of the tournament because of thigh and back injuries, had to 'retire hurt' with cramp but his top-order teammates ensured his good work was not wasted.
Hans Fernando (52 not out) and Dilhan Cooray (53 not out) applied the finishing touches to the win with an unbroken stand of 112 for the third wicket.
De Zoysa faced 79 balls and hit seven fours in a 111-minute stay at the crease and it was a gutsy effort from the left-handed wicketkeeper after his previous two innings had both been ducks.
Despite his retirement, De Zoysa is expected to be fit for Saturday's match, also at the SSC.
Zimbabwe's bowling and fielding, so often their saving grace in this tournament, was a major disappointment for them when it came to defending their total and with Sri Lanka's batsmen running well between the wickets the target was always in range.
Only Graeme Cremer (1-41) enjoyed any success with the ball with the other wicket falling to a run-out as Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams tried seven bowlers to try and break the batsmen's rhythm.
Karunaratne stroked eight fours in 66 balls while Fernando (56 balls, six fours) and Cooray (56 balls, four fours and a glorious six over extra cover) looked in excellent form.
Sri Lanka's batting was the good news story for the home side. The bad news was their fielding which was, at times, ragged.
Meth was dropped at third man by Ashan Priyanjara when he had scored just 18 while Balance should have been run out on 40 only to be reprieved when a throw to the bowler's end was not gathered cleanly.
Reprieved, the Zimbabwe duo added 131 for the third wicket, their side's best stand for any wicket in the tournament.
Meth faced just 93 balls in compiling his runs and batted for 121 minutes, hitting 12 fours. Balance, by contrast, was happy to play the supporting role and faced 85 deliveries, striking three fours and scored mainly in ones and twos.
When both were dismissed in quick succession Zimbabwe slipped into a mini-slump as they went from 170-2 to 208-6 but late hitting from Higgins ensured the work of the earlier duo was not wasted.
Higgins clobbered two fours and two sixes to help his side past their previous highest score of the tournament, the 215-7 they made against Ireland in the group stages.
Thisara Perera (2-49), Shalika Karunanayake (2-50) and Sachith Pathirana (2-44) each took two wickets while the other successful bowlers were Chathupama Gunasinghe (1-22) and Rajeewa Weerasinghe (1-52).
For Sri Lanka, Roshen Silva replaced Mathews after being drafted into the squad following approval from the tournament's Technical Committee, while Sachithra Serasinghe was absent after being reportedly released from the squad for disciplinary reasons.
Sri Lanka coach Sumithra Waranakulasuriya was pleased with the result which showed his players still had some stomach for the fight despite missing out on the major prize of the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup trophy.
Sean Williams, Zimbabwe's captain, was bitterly disappointed with the way his side finished in the tournament.
He set his players the task of winning the Super League play-off to end the tournament with as high a finish as possible but it was not to be and he was clear on the reason for that.
"Our fielding was very poor today, especially the amount of singles Sri Lanka got," he said.
"They were basically blocking the ball and running and we also missed run-out chances.
"I was very impressed with our batting we did what we said we would do before the game and made sure we had wickets in hand rather than worrying about the power plays early on and lose wickets."
