U19 Asia Cup | India scrape past Afghanistan to finish top of Group A
The Indian Under-19 team continued their dominant run as they beat Afghanistan by three wickets to finish top of their group in the U-19 Asia Cup. The result means that India now will face either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh in the semi-final, depending on the result of the matches on Tuesday.
Brief scores: INDU19 128-7 (Shashwat Rawat 29 and Noor Ahmad 4-30) beat AFGU19 124 all-out (Abidullah Taniwal 39 and Sushant Mishra 5-20)
Coming on the back of an impressive 60-run win against arch-rivals Pakistan, the India U19 team entered the contest with the sole aim of finishing top of the group. Batting first, Afghanistan U19 got off to the perfect start as skipper Farhan Zakhil and Sediqullah Atal added 50 runs for the first wicket under 10 overs. However, the resistance of the duo was then broken by pacer Sushant Mishra, who dismissed Zakhil for 29. Atal was then trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Atharva Ankolekar and this, in turn, triggered an incredible collapse.Â
After racing off to 51/0, the Afghan team lost added only 73 more runs to their total, as they were bowled out for a modest 124. Mishra and Ankolekar were the destroyers in chief for the Indians, as the duo accounted for nine of the ten scalps in the innings.
Chasing a meager target of 125, India started their chase in a similar fashion to their opponents, with each of the top three batsmen getting off to starts. However, after being 80/2 at one stage, left-arm chinaman bowler Noor Ahmad came up with an other-worldly spell of spin bowling to reduce the Salil Arora-led team to 106/7. But lower-order batsmen Karan Lal and Purnank Tyagi weathered the Afghanistan storm to eventually guide their team safely to a three-wicket win.
Despite the loss, thanks to two victories and a superior NRR, Afghanistan also find themselves in the semi-final of the tournament. The Indian U19 team will face either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh in the semi-final, with the latter two teams set to take on each other at the Tyronne Fernando Stadium on Tuesday.