India grind Aussies to enter semis

Potchefstroom, January 28

Favourites India reached the semifinals of the Under-19 World Cup when they defeated Australia by a big margin of 74 runs in the quarterfinals. The star of the day was right-arm quick bowler Kartik Tyagi, who finished with 4/24, as Australia were bowled out for 159 in 43.3 overs as they chased a target of 234.

Australia seemed to be in with a chance until the end of the 40th over, when they had reached 149/5. Sam Fanning was on 74 and Liam Scott on 35, the two had already added 81 for the sixth wicket and seemed set to mount a charge to get the remaining 85 off 10 overs.

However, Rajasthan leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi struck with the first ball of the 41st over to have Scott caught-behind. In the next over, bowled by left-arm quick Akash Singh — another Rajasthan boy — Fanning fell caught-behind, Connor Sully (0) was run-out following a mix-up with Tanveer Sangha, and then Todd Murphy was bowled (0), on three consecutive balls. Australia’s chase was wrecked.

Tough grind

Though the margin was big and convincing in the end, the match forced the Indian team to put up a fight to wriggle out of a difficult position when they batted.

India’s top-order struggled to break free and three early wickets pegged them back at 54/3 in 15.2 overs, a run-rate of less than four an over with three key batsmen out. Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had struck a six and a four in the second over of the innings, was now forced to slow down. When Australian leg-spinner Sangha — who has roots in Punjab — came on to bowl, the left-handed Jaiswal took him for 6-4-1 (11 runs) off the first three balls he faced from him. Sangha had his revenge when he bowled out Jaiswal off the fourth ball he bowled to the Indian, sending him back for 62 off 107.

Dhruv Jurel struggled for 48 balls for his 15 before edging one to wicketkeeper Patrick Rowe to off-spinner Murphy. It was then that Mumbai lad Atharva Ankolekar walked in, with the team in trouble at 114/5 and only 19 overs left in the innings.

Ankolekar had useful partnerships with Siddhesh Veer (25 off 42 balls) and Ravi Bishnoi (30 off 31 balls) as the tail managed to more than double the score in the remaining 19 overs. India got 119 runs in the final 19 overs with Ankolekar doing the star turn with five fours and one six. He got his runs in ones and twos, bade his time and hit out towards the end of the innings — he struck his one six and three of his four fours in the final three overs.

The Indian lads have scored comfortable wins so far in the tournament, and their middle-order had not been tested. They would be happy that in the biggest game so far, the first knockout match, they managed to fight back after a top-order failure and reach another semifinal of the biannual tournament. — Agencies

Afghans or Pak next

In the semifinals, India will take on the winners of the quarterfinal between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan take on Pakistan on Friday (Jan 31) at Benoni.

Concussion

Australia No. 7 Liam Scott was not in the playing XI but came in to bat as a concussion substitute for Corey Kelly, who got injured while fielding during India’s innings. Scott added 81 runs for the sixth wicket with opener Sam Fanning, and that was the only time during Australia’s chase that the Indians got a bit nervous.

Scoreboard

India U-19

Y Jaiswal b Sangha 62

D Saxena c Rowe b Kelly 14

NT Tilak Varma c Harvey b Murphy 2

P Garg b Sully 5

D Jurel c Rowe b Murphy 15

S Veer c Murphy b Kelly 25

A Ankolekar not out 55

R Bishnoi run out 30

S Mishra c Harvey b Willans 4

K Tyagi run out 1

A Singh not out 0

Extras: (b 1, lb 6, nb 2, w 11) 20

Total: (9 wickets, 50 overs) 233

Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-44, 3-54, 4-102, 5-114, 6-144, 7-205, 8-215, 9-230

Bowling

Matthew Willans 10-1-41-1

Connor Sully 10-1-56-1

Corey Kelly 10-0-45-2

Todd Murphy 10-0-40-2

Tanveer Sangha 8-1-39-1

Oliver Davies 2-0-5-0

Australia U-19

S Fanning c Jurel b Akash 75

J Fraser-McGurk run out 0

M Harvey lbw b Tyagi 4

L Hearne b Tyagi 0

O Davies c Jaiswal b Tyagi 2

P Rowe c Jurel b Tyagi 21

L Scott c Jurel b Bishnoi 35

C Sully run out 5

T Sangha not out 2

T Murphy b Akash 0

M Willans b Akash 2

Extras: (lb 4, nb 1, w 8) 13

Total: (All out, 43.3 overs) 159

Did not bat: Corey Kelly got injured while fielding in 49th over of India’s innings and was replaced by Liam Scott

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-4, 4-17, 5-68, 6-149, 7-155, 8-155, 9-155

Bowling

Kartik Tyagi 8-0-24-4

Sushant Mishra 6-0-28-0

Ravi Bishnoi 9-0-26-1

Akash Singh 8.3-0-30-3

Siddhesh Veer 5-0-25-0

Atharva Ankolekar 7-0-22-0

Player of the Match: Kartik Tyagi