Harnoor Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s show with the bat was backed up by a dominant bowling performance as India defeated Ireland by 174 runs in Group B of the ongoing ICC U19 World Cup in Trinidad at the Brian Lara Stadium on Wednesday.
With this win, India have now registered victories in their opening two matches and qualify for the Super League quarter-finals. The colts will lock horns against Uganda in their final group stage game on Saturday.
India were playing with a depleted playing XI as six players tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the match, but this was no problem for the side as they registered a comprehensive win.
Chasing 308, Ireland got off to the worst start possible as Liam Doherty (7) and Jack Dickson (0) lost their wickets. Ravi Kumar dismissed Doherty while Rajvardhan Hangargekar got the better of Dickson. Ireland’s troubles increased when David Vincent (8) was sent back to the pavilion via a run-out in the seventh over of the innings, reducing them to 17/3.
Ireland kept on losing wickets at regular intervals, and in the end, India registered a comprehensive 174-run win. Nathan McGuire and Scott MacBeth put on a brave show for Ireland as the duo put on 39 runs for the seventh wicket, but in the end, it did not prove enough.
Earlier, Harnoor Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi played knocks of 88 and 79 respectively as India posted in the allotted fifty overs. Sent into bat, the colts got off to a brilliant start with the bat as openers Harnoor Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi put on 164 runs for the first wicket, which saw both batters going past their fifty-run mark. Ireland finally got the breakthrough in the 26th over as Jamie Forbes dismissed Raghuvanshi (79).
Harnoor Singh (88) also missed out on a century as he was sent back to the pavilion by Matthew Humphreys in the 35th over and India was reduced to 195/2. Stand-in skipper Nishant Sindhu (36), Rajvardhan Hangargekar (39*), and Raj Bawa (42) also chipped in with valuable knocks to help India post a score of more than the 300-run mark.
Brief Scores: India 307/5 (Harnoor Singh 88, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 79; Muzamil Sherzad 3-79); Ireland 133 all out (Scott MacBeth 32, Joshua Cox 28; Kaushal Tambe 2-8).
With inputs from ANI