Mount Maunganui: Riding on skipper Prithvi Shaw’s 94 and Manjot Kalra’s 86, the Indian U-19 team registered a thumping 100-run win in their World Cup opener over their Australian counterparts at the Bay Oval on Sunday.
Batting first, the Indian colts got off to a great start with Shaw and Kalra’s adding 180 runs for the first wicket before Will Sutherland spoiled the party, sending back the captain when the latter was just six runs short of a deserving century. Shaw’s 100-run knock was studded with eight fours and two huge sixes as the Indian colts took the attack to the opposition and didn’t let them settle down. Left-handed opener Kalra too batted nicely for his 86 of 99 balls which had 12 fours and one six.
After Shaw’s departure, in walked Shubman Gill, who is one of the finest future prospects with the willow as he smacked 63 runs from 54 balls which had six fours and one six. Some fireworks at the end of the day were provided by Abhishek Sharma, who whacked his way to an eight-ball 23 wicket had just two fours and sixes as India finished the first innings at 328/7.
Jack Edwards was the best bowler as he scalped four wickets, giving away 65 runs.
In reply, openers- Edwards and Max Byrant got off to a good start with a 57-run stand before the latter was dismissed by Kamlesh Nagarkoti. Abhishek Sharma then also found success with the ball as he sent back Jason Sangha for just 14 runs in a tall chase as this.
Jonathan Merlo however provided a brief resistance with 38 runs of 32 balls before Shivam Mavi bowled him to leave Australia at 145/3. A Mavi-Aryan Juyal combination got rid of Param Uppal through a run-out. Austin Waugh, son of the legendary Steve Waugh was the next batsman to be dismissed as Australia were slowly losing their way from the chase and although wicket-keeper batsman Baxter J Holt made 39 from 30 at the end, Nagarkoti eventually had the last laugh as Rahul Dravid’s boys ended up thrashing the Australians by a massive margin of 100 runs to kickoff their World Cup campaign in style.
Brief scores–
Australia U-19 228/10 (Jack Edwards 73, Baxter J Holt 39; Kamlesh Nagarkoti 3/29) lost to India U-19 328/7 (Prithvi Shaw 94, Manjot Kalra 86; Jack Edwards 4/64) by 100 runs.
Lincoln: Kenya U-19 172/7 (Jasraj Kundi 41, Ankit Hirani 35; Akhona Mnyaka 2/9) lost to South Africa U-19 341/7 (Raynard Von Tonder 143, Jiveshan Pillay 62; Jasraj Kundi 2/49) by 169 runs.
Whangarei: Sri Lanka U-19 208/3 (Dhananjaya Lakshan 101*, Kamindu Mendis 74*; Aaron Cawley 2/26) beat Ireland U-19 207/8 (Jamie Grassi 75, Mark Donegan 36; Kamindu Mendis 3/35) by 7 wickets.