Having already made a statement at the 2024 ICC Men’s U19 Cricket World Cup with an 84-run triumph over Bangladesh, the India U19 team, who are this competition’s most successful side, secured their second consecutive victory without breaking a sweat, as they handed Ireland a 201-run defeat.
On being asked to bat first by the Irish skipper Philippus le Roux, Uday Saharan’s team did well to accumulate 301 runs on a Manguang Oval track that was not particularly tailor-made for the bat-wielders.
Openers Adarsh Singh and Arshin Kulkarni got the team off to a steady – if not brisk – start, although the former was dismissed by John McNally in the eighth over. However, it barely had any effect on how the game ebbed and flowed, with Musheer Khan taking the onus of getting India to a competitive total on himself.
Musheer, the 18-year-old from Mumbai who happens to be the younger brother of another talented batter, Sarfaraz Khan, scored 118 of India’s 301 runs. Following Kulkarni’s dismissal in the 20th over, he built a game-defining 156-run stand with skipper Saharan.
In a good-cop-bad-cop set-up, Musheer inflicted dread on the Irish bowlers with his flamboyant shots, whilst Saharan’s predominant task was to anchor the innings, ensuring he bats for as long as he could.
The captain batted till the 45th over, and scored 75 runs off 84 deliveries before losing his wicket to Finn Lutton. At that stage, India would have happily accepted any score north of 275, but quickfire cameos from wicketkeeper-batter Aravelly Avanish Rao and all-rounder Sachin Dhas ensured they crossed the 300-run mark. The pair accumulated a cumulative 33 runs from 24 deliveries.
Tiwari’s Pace & Pandey’s Spin Unsettle Ireland
Although Ireland might never have looked comfortable during the run chase, they did look composed when the two openers – Jordan Neill and Ryan Hunter – were on the crease. But the 22-run stand was broken by left-arm orthodox spinner Saumy Kumar Pandey, who castled Neill.
Hunter lost his wicket three overs later, off speedster Naman Tiwari’s bowling, and his departure triggered a chain reaction. The next seven batters on Ireland’s team-sheet scored an accumulated 14 runs, with Tiwari and Pandey hunting them down in pairs.
Tiwari, the 18-year-old bowler hailing from Uttar Pradesh, picked up four wickets by conceding 53 runs, while Pandey, the spinner from Madhya Pradesh, scalped three wickets at the expense of only 21 runs.
At one stage, it seemed Ireland would not cross the 50-run mark, with the scoreboard reading 45/8. However, a resilient eighth-wicket partnership between Oliver Riley and Daniel Forkin ensured Ireland not only achieved that, but reached a three-figure score.
The pair formed a 39-run stand, with Riley scoring 15 runs and Forking accumulating 27. Following the former’s dismissal, Finn Lutton scored seven runs to take his team’s total to 100, before losing his wicket to an Uday Saharan delivery.
Courtesy of this victory, India are now comfortably placed at the top of the Group A standings, with four points in two matches and a net run rate of +2.850. Their last group stage fixture will be against the United States of America, which will be played on Sunday, 28 January.
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