Four giants set for thrilling semi-finals at U19WC 2025
South Africa face Australia while India take on England in the semi-finals of ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup 2025.
The ICC Women's U19 T20 World Cup 2025 moves into its closing stages on Friday with two thrilling semi-finals in store.
South Africa will take on Australia in the first while reigning champions India will face England in the second later on in the day.
Here's a look at what could be in store.
South Africa v Australia
Australia have bowled brilliantly throughout the tournament – with Lily Bassingthwaite the standout, boasting six wickets and an economy rate of 2.22 – and will be hoping their top-order batting begins to fire.
They will need to be in prime form for this clash. The group stage was straightforward for them, beating Scotland and Nepal easily before a closer contest against Bangladesh, and they followed that up with a good win against West Indies in the Super Sixes.
They already knew they were through to the semi-finals before they played Sri Lanka in their last Super Six match, which may have contributed to them becoming the only semi-finalists to be beaten in the tournament.
South Africa have been hampered by rain throughout the tournament, and have not played a full 40 overs so far. It is difficult, then, to assess their true form, but then it will be equally tricky for opponents to prepare for their batters, considering they have batted for fewer than 27 overs in their four matches combined.
The bowlers have done exactly what has been required of them, with captain Kayla Reyneke leading the way, taking nine wickets with an average economy rate of 4.03. But the knock-out stages will prove a sterner test than they have faced thus far.
India v England
Defending champions India are favourites to retain their crown, with a nine-wicket win over West Indies, an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh, a 60-run win over Sri Lanka and a 150-run win over Scotland. But now they come up against England, who have made their way past a few big obstacles to get this far – beating Pakistan by six wickets, USA by eight wickets and New Zealand by six wickets.
India have some stand-out shining stars – most notably Trisha Gongadi at the top of the batting order and the superb Vaishnavi Sharma, with 12 wickets already in the tournament including a hat-trick.
England will be hoping to remove Trisha as soon as possible and then have their fingers crossed that the India middle order and tail have not had the match practice to fend off their own fine bowling attack, led by spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman, who has taken seven wickets so far.
With the bat, Davina Perrin has been England's best performer thus far, with 131 runs to her name, and she will seek to add to that haul.