BLOEMFONTEIN: Defending champions India outclassed debutants Japan by 10 wickets in their second match to secure a spot in the Super League quarterfinals of the ICC U-19 World Cup here on Tuesday.
Opting to field first, four-time champions India bowled out a hapless Japan for 41 runs in 22.5 overs with leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi taking four wickets. It was the joint second lowest total by a team in the Under-19 World Cup and joint third lowest in the under-19 cricket history.
Pacers Kartik Tyagi and Akash Singh shared five wickets among themselves as none of the Japanese batsmen entered double digits. India needed just 4.5 overs to complete the formalities with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kumar Kushagra remaining unbeaten on 29 and 13 respectively.
In their tournament-opener on Sunday, India had beaten Sri Lanka by 90 runs. They play their final league game against New Zealand on Friday. The game on Tuesday was a complete mismatch with Japan playing a major ICC event for the first time.
India captain Priyam Garg, however, said his fast bowlers could have done a better job.
“Very happy with the performance. The spinners were good, but the lines and lengths could have been better from the pacers. There’s no pressure as such. We want to do well, we take every game as it comes,” said Garg. Japan captain Marcus Thurgate said the team will head back home a lot richer in experience.
“I knew it was going to be a really tough game. We didn’t do our best, specially with the batting. We could have done better. We learnt a lot. We can go to Japan and say that we’ve played against some of the big guys,” he reflected.
“We’ll take a lot of positives from this game. We need to learn from our mistakes and keep getting better,” said Thurgate. Bangladesh are on the cusp of joining the defending champions in the Super League after a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Scotland for their second win of Group C.
Their place in the next stage would be confirmed if Pakistan beat Zimbabwe on Wednesday a result which would also see Pakistan progress, while New Zealand face Sri Lanka. Spinner Rakibul Hasan took a stunning hat-trick as Bangladesh moved closer to the knockout stages in Potchefstroom.
The Scots were bowled out for 89 with Hassan finishing with figures of four for 20 including the scalps of Kess Sajjad, Lyle Robertson and Charlie Peet in successive balls. Bangladesh reached the target within 17 overs, though Scotland did force a fight back with a sterling bowling performance from seamer Sean Fischer-Keogh (three for 27), before Mahmudul Hasan Joy’s 35 not out steered his side to the line.
Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali was pleased with his side’s clinical display so far in the tournament, having opened the tournament with a nine-wicket win over Zimbabwe on Saturday. PTI
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