KIMBERLEY          -         The opening encounter of the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2020 will be played between South Africa U19 and Afghanistan U19 today (Friday) at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley. South Africa Under 19 have faced Afghanistan Under 19 a total of three times and have won comprehensively each time. South Africa lost their first ICC Under 19 World Cup warm up match against Sri Lanka by 15 runs but won the next one against Nigeria by 8 wickets. Afghanistan lost to India by a massive margin of 211 runs but came back strongly against England to win it by 21 runs. In the last edition of the Under 19 World Cup, the Afghans had won 2 and lost one out of their 3 group matches. South Africa had similar figures with two wins and one loss from three group games. Jonathan Bird and Bryce Parsons are the top batsmen for South Africa. Bird averages almost 50 from his last 10 games. Parsons has a slightly inferior average of 35.57 from his last 7 matches but has struck at over 90. Farhan Zakhil and Rahmanullah are the batsmen to look out for Afghanistan. However, both average in the early 20s lately. When it comes to bowling, Mondil Khumalo and Gerald Coetzee would be the main men for South Africa. While both have an economy of under five, Coetzee has a far better strike rate. For Afghanistan, Noor Ahmad has picked up 15 wickets from his last seven games while Shafiqullah Ghafari has 13 from his last 9