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The India U-19 cricket team secured a comfortable 174-run victory against Ireland to qualify for the Super League stage of the ICC U-19 World Cup played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.
The Indian team had to suffer a major setback before the start of their second game of the ongoing World Cup tournament after six of their cricketers were tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. Skipper Yash Dhull, vice-captain Shaik Rasheed, Manav Parakh, Vasu Vats, Aaradhya Yadav and Siddarth Yadav were the five players to be found positive but that did not seem to have created much problem for the Indian team after they managed to beat their opponents with sheer ease in the World Cup.
Indian batting
After winning the toss, Ireland skipper Tim Tector decided to bowl first and the decision seemed to have backfired as the Irish bowlers took 26 overs to pick up the first wicket.
Indian opening batsmen Harnoor Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi notched a solid opening partnership of 164 runs to provide a brilliant start to their batting. Delhi-born, Raghuvanshi (79 off 79 balls) was the first batsman to be dismissed after he failed to play a shot through the off side and managed to provide just an edge which was comfortably caught by wicketkeeper Joshua Cox. Jamie Forbes was the first bowler to provide the crucial breakthrough.
Harnoor on the other hand, went on to carry on his terrific batting show as he scored 88 off 101 deliveries. His innings was comprised of 12 boundaries. Harnoor looked set to score a century but was eventually dismissed by Matthew Humphreys.
Skipper Nishant Sindhu (36 off 34 balls), Raj Bawa (42 off 64 deliveries) and Rajvardhan Hangargekar (39 off just 17 balls) gave the openers a great support to register a solid total of 307 for 5 wickets in 50 overs.
For Ireland, their 19-year-old medium pacer Muzamil Sherad was the best bowler as he managed to pick up three wickets for his side.
Poor batting
In reply, the Irish batting unit collapsed pretty early after their opening batsman Liam Doherty (7 runs) was dismissed by Ravi Kumar in the 4th over of the innings. And since the fall of the first wicket no Irish player looked promising enough to do something concrete in the run chase. Scott Macbeth (32 off 40 deliveries) was the highest run-scorer for the Ireland team.
For India, bowlers Garv Sangwan, Aneeshwar Gautam and Kaushal Tambe picked up two wickets each as Ireland were bundled out for just 133 runs in 39 overs.
With this victory the Indian team remained the table-toppers with four points from two matches and will play Uganda in their last match of the Group Stage.
