After seniors, India U19 lift Asia Cup with strong display
FACILE WIN Spinner Harsh Tyagi’s sixwicket haul scripts the 144run win over Sri Lanka after batsmen make merry
MIRPUR: India’s juniors followed the footsteps of their seniors to win the U-19 Asia Cup title with a crushing 144-run win over Sri Lanka in the final with Delhi boys Ayush Badoni and Harsh Tyagi playing prominent roles.
Just a week back, the senior team beat Bangladesh in a closely-fought final in Dubai to emerge as continental champions.
The favourites outplayed Sri Lanka in all departments by first scoring an imposing 303 for six at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium after skipper Prabh Simran Singh won the toss and elected to bat.
All the Indian batsmen contributed with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (85 off 113 balls) and Anuj Rawat (57 off 79 balls) laying solid foundation with a 121-run stand.
However, the highlight of the Indian innings was Badoni’s blistering unbeaten knock of 52 (off 28 balls) which included five sixes and two fours. Along with skipper Prabh Simran (65 no off 37 balls), Badoni added 110 runs in 9.1 overs to literally bat Sri Lanka out of the match.
The island nation were never in the chase as they were all out for 160 in 38.4 overs losing wickets at regular intervals with left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi’s registering brilliant figures of 6 for 38 in 10 overs. He flighted a few and fired a few down the channel in what was his best performance at the U-19 level till date.
Man of the match Tyagi, who bowled a disciplined line said: “The instruction was to bowl at one spot after doing a video analysis of the Sri Lanka team. The wicket also assisted the spinners.”