Ireland and the United States of America will kick off the 15th edition of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup on Friday. Both teams will face each other in the first game while the tournament hosts South Africa will take on West Indies in the second game on the same day.
Both Ireland and USA are drawn with cricket giants India and Bangladesh in Group A. Three teams from each group will progress to the Super Six stages so this opening game offers a lot of importance to the league stage standings.
Ireland defeated USA when both teams last played against each other in the 2010 edition of the World Cup and are favourites to kick off their campaign with a win on Friday.
Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein Pitch Report
The surface at Bloemfontien's Mangaung Oval offers a balanced surface in 50-over cricket. The average innings score here is 248 with teams batting first winning only 15 of 25 ODI matches so far. Australia recorded 392 runs against South Africa's strong bowling attack in the latest ODI game played here in September 2023 which suggest a helping surface for the batters.
The venue is also expected to offer some help for the pace bowlers in the initial stages of the game and captains are likely to prefer bowling first on Friday.
Mangaung Oval Records and Stats
Total ODI Matches: 35
Matches won batting first: 15
Matches won bowling first: 18
Average first innings score: 248
Average second innings score: 205
Highest total scored: 399/9 by England vs South Africa
Highest score chased: 347/5 by South Africa vs England
Lowest total recorded: 78/10 by Zimbabwe vs South Africa
Lowest total defended: 203/6 by Australia vs South Africa
Ireland U19 squad: Philippe le Roux (c), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Khaled Ahmed, Ibrahim Zadran, Tamim Iqbal, Shoaib Malik, Paul Starling, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammed Amir, Abbas Afridi, Dunith Wellalage, Mushfiqur Rahim, Rakibul Hasan Jr, Macdara Cosgrave, Harry Dyer, Daniel Forkin, Kian Hilton, Ryan Hunter, Finn Lutton, Scott Macbeth, Carson McCullough, John McNally, Jordan Neill, Oliver Riley, Gavin Roulston, Matthew Weldon, Reuben Wilson
USA U19 squad: Rishi Ramesh (c), Amogh Arepally, Rayaan Bhagani, Aaryan Batra, Khush Bhalala, Prannav Chettipalayam, Arya Garg, Siddarth Kappa, Bhavya Mehta, Aarin Nadkarni, Manav Nayak, Parth Patel, Utkarsh Srivastava, Ateendra Subramanian, Aryaman Suri. Reserves: Arjun Mahesh, Ansh Rai, Aryan Satheesh
