ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024: Australia Win Fourth Title by 79 Runs — Mahli Beardman 3/15 Restricts India at Benoni

Australia U19 won the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2024 on 11 February 2024 at JB Marks Oval, Benoni, South Africa, defeating India U19 by 79 runs. Australia scored 253/7 in 50 overs; India were bowled out for 174 in 43.5 overs in reply. Mahli Beardman took 3/15 as Player of the Match — the bowling figures that restricted India's chase and contributed to the 79-run winning margin. Hugh Weibgen captained Australia; Uday Saharan captained India. Kwena Maphaka (South Africa) won Player of the Tournament with 21 wickets across the competition — despite South Africa not reaching the final. It was Australia's fourth ICC U19 Men's World Cup title.

253/7 and a 79-Run Margin: Australia's Commanding Final Victory

Australia's 253/7 in 50 overs — and India being bowled out for 174 in 43.5 overs, 79 runs short of the target — gave the 2024 ICC U19 World Cup final a comfortable Australian winning margin that reflected the batting depth Hugh Weibgen's squad had built across the South African tournament. India's 174 all out, dismissed 6.1 overs before the scheduled completion of 50 overs, reflected a batting collapse in the chase of 254 that Australia's bowling — including Mahli Beardman's 3/15 — produced in Benoni's conditions. The 79-run margin in the 2024 final gave Australia one of the more dominant U19 World Cup final winning margins in the competition's recent history, confirming the Australian U19 program's depth across batting and bowling departments.

Kwena Maphaka 21 Wickets: Tournament Record from South Africa's Non-Finalist

Kwena Maphaka winning Player of the Tournament at the 2024 ICC U19 World Cup with 21 wickets — a competition leading figure across the tournament's full run of matches — from South Africa's squad (which did not reach the final) continued the pattern established in the 2022 edition (where Dewald Brevis won Player of the Tournament from non-finalist South Africa). Maphaka, the South Africa U19 right-arm pace bowler whose wicket-taking across group and knockout stages made him the tournament's most prolific wicket-taker, gave South Africa's youth cricket program back-to-back Player of the Tournament awards across 2022 and 2024 — a remarkable individual achievement sequence from a country whose senior men's team has been one of cricket's most consistent performers across the same period. The final between Australia and India — the two nations competing for their respective 4th and 6th U19 titles — gave the competition's most historic rivalry its most recent installment in Benoni.

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2024 in Context

The ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2024 — held in South Africa in January-February 2024 — was the 16th edition of the competition. Australia's 79-run win over India — Mahli Beardman 3/15, Australia 253/7, India 174 all out — gave the 2024 final a clear-winning-margin result that confirmed Australia's batting and bowling depth across the tournament. South Africa's Kwena Maphaka winning Player of the Tournament (21 wickets) without his team reaching the final continued the competition's pattern of the most individually prolific performer in wickets or runs emerging from a non-finalist nation — a result that the U19 World Cup's round-robin group structure, which allows non-finalists to accumulate large statistical totals across many matches, produces more frequently than senior ICC tournaments. Australia's fourth U19 title given their larger population base and established cricket development infrastructure will remain one of the competition's most consistent programs across junior cricket.