3rd July, Kuching, Sarawak: USA easily defeated Australia, 2-0 in the Girl's Team second semi-final match of the 2026 IBF World Youth Bowling Championships while Singapore edged Malaysia 2-1 in the first semi-final for the final scheduled on Monday July 6.

USA took the first game in the best-of-3 encounter, 225-208 for a 1-0 lead. In the second game, the American quartet went on a strike-fest reeling in five consecutive strikes to open up a huge gap over their opponent. Australia simply had no answer to respond as USA cruised to a convincing 244-166 win.

USA had tied with Finland and Czechia on 15 points each at the end of the earlier Matchplay round as Australia won Group A with 18 points. Imagine surviving the tie-breaker and clinching a win with 187 over Finland (177) and Czcehia (171) to book their spot in the semi-finals.

In the other semi-finals, Singapore had to work hard for their spot in the final, first by taking the first game, 202-176 over Malaysia, the winner of Matchplay round Group A. But Malaysia bounced back with a 216-194 win over Singapore in the second game to force a third game decider.

Malaysia had an early split and recovered with a double. Singapore down three strikes-in-a-row from frame 2. When the Singaporean quartet encountered a split in the fifth frame, the tie had swung toward Malaysia. And when Singapore failed to make a spare in the eighth frame, it look like Malaysia was on their way to the final.

But Singapore struck three times from frame 9 while Malaysia managed only two. Singapore went on to clinch the tie and advanced to the final, 210-199. Singapore had also survived a four-way tie-breaker at the end of the Matchplay round Group B with 226, defeating Japan (220), Korea (220) and Germany (160) after all four teams had 12 points each.

The Mixed Team qualifying round will be contested tomorrow morning at 9:00am local time. The top 16 teams will qualify for the head-to-head Matchplay round over seven matches divided into two groups. The top 2 with the highest points earned will advance to the semi-finals.

Photos by Terence Yaw in Kuching, Sarawak.

Related stories:
USA rules Girls Team qualifying
Czechia versus Australia showdown in the final
Sweden tops Boys Team qualifying
Two European versus one American and one Asian